ee a a Pe, 
Le ee 

Pn ao 

Cp tA 


had: 
ra 
atid 
#9, 


i 
sete 


De, : - 
= 
Rei Sy : : ; 
sees Sep RES : mae 
S E porate “J 


sec pec re era pean 


ahi 
cy 
chat) 


Lit 


1 


if 


he 
i) 


CRY fate A 
hie y, t? 


*) 
i. 
¥ 


Shc 


tenes 








Kha OF PRINGE 
Se 
4 






Q 
SYLUGIGAL SEWS 


BE 
pection ce Ake 





Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/practicalpsychol0Ofarn 


PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


FOR 


MEN AND WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRIES AND 
PROFESSIONS, AND FOR THE GENERAL READER. 


/ a i 
# 
i 
By \y 
BURT BYRON FARNSWORTH™ 200 00 
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, INTERNATIONAL 
Y. M. C. A, COLLEGE, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. AUTHOR OF “THE CHRISTIAN 
APPEAL,” “WHAT IS HAPPENING TO INDUSTRIAL AMERICA.” 
‘LECTURER ON PSYCHOLOGY, ETC. 


NEW YORK 
GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1923, 
By BURT B. FARNSWORTH 
All Rights Reserved 


COPYRIGHT, 1925, 
By GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY 
All Rights Reserved 


Printep 1n U. S. A, 


PREFACE 


It has been the aim of the author in writing Practical Psy- 
chology to make the principles so clear and to present them so 
interestingly that the reader may understand and enjoy the 
book. 

This should lead to his getting better acquainted with him- 
self and to become interested in applying the principles to his 
own development and to be able to recognize them when he sees 
them expressed in the conduct of others. 

It is hoped that as he reads he will discover something of 
the “how” of character development and also something of 
the “why” and so become a more capable individual and a 
more important factor for good in his social group and so come 
to realize in fuller measure the real joy of living. 


Burt Byron FARNSWORTH. 
Springfield, Mass., 
June I, 1925. 


7 , oyit ihe 


‘ MEAN 


WD 
le ae 
See te 
POU ous 


Ache 
Jha oe 
oe Med 





CHAPTER 


is 


Ue. 


Wee 


TV; 


CONTENTS 


WACHINEOW HICH THE MIND. USES di ture aaa t 


Applied psychology. Mental mastery. Relation of mind 
and body. Control of bodily activity. Ideas and bodily 
activity. Body a machine for doing work. Cell theory 
of life. The amceba. The amphioxus. Human nervous 
system. Cellular intelligence. Cerebrospinal nervous 
system. Sympathetic nervous system. Consciousness. 


SENGE-PERCEPTIVE UE ROCESSES/ ish ae roan: 


World of waves. Differentiation of function. Sensa- 
tion. Perception. What one can know. Interpreting 
impressions. Sense deception. Special senses, and what 
they furnish us. Sense limitations. 


MONCEPTS AND 9] UDGMENTS A) Pema rane ainen Opin aug 


Concepts. Formation of concepts. Relation of per- 
cepts to concepts. Analysis. Synthesis. Steps in con- 
cept formation. Value of clear concepts. Growth of 
intellect. Accuracy in generalization. Language and 
mental development. Judgment and judging. The raw 
material of judging. Training judgment. Judgment and 
progress. 


eae OVVORLD ON ACSOCLA TION ral jew in cai neuaN ke Myo ern, 


Association centers. Reaction time. Elements involved. 
Association areas. World of association. Idea does not 
~ appear in mind without reason. What is association? 
Normal process. Cause. Contiguity. Similarity. Dis- 
tinguishing likenesses and differences. Power of associa- 
tion. Subconsciousness. Abnormal functioning. Dis- 
sociation. Time required to fix associations. Uncon- 
trolled associations. Association and vocations. 


M EM ORY e e ° e e e e e e ° e e 


Memory. Remembering. Good memory. Basis of 
memory. Brain change permanent. Memory or memo- 
ries. Types of memory. Retention. Recall. Recogni- 
tion. Replacement. Elements in memory. Intensity. 


PAGE 


30 


55 


82 


113 


vi 


CHAPTER 


We 


MIT 


VIII. 


IX. 


CONTENTS 


Recency. Frequency. Primacy. False memories. Short 
memories. Children’s memories. Memory systems. How 
to remember. Intend to remember. Be interested. As- 
sociate logically. Understand material. Repetition and 
reviews. Concrete imagery. Ideas before words. Dor- 
mant memories. Limit of memory development. 


TACAGIN'A TION Cie Go real Gt OW a dito Dit ao ie ea aan 


Memory and material for imagination. Images, kinds 
of. Dalton’s questions. Ability to form image. Test for 
images. Imagination and beliefs. Bias or prejudice. 
Distinction between idea and image. Imagination and 
environment. Control of imagination. Constructive 
imagination. Mental vision. Power of imagination. 
Limits of imagination. 


REASON OR) HOW WE PLAIN EVN Ue oe eee 


Day dreaming. Choosing. Rationalization. Construc- 
tive thinking. Thinking of animals and of man. In- 
stinctive action. Experience. Information. Intelligence. 
Discovering relationships. Cause of inaccurate thinking. 
Cause of thought. Thought processes. Original thought. 
Dewey’s steps. Acquisitive and reflective powers. From 
particular to particular. From particular to general. 
Beginning of thought. Necessary beliefs. Inductive 
thinking. Deductive thinking. Judgment and thought. 
Laws of thought—parsimony, analogy, identity, contra- 
diction, excluded middle. Test for thinking, syllogism, 
arrested thinking. Why persons differ in thinking. Use 
of reason in acquiring knowledge. Logical powers new 
in race, not yet stable. 


WILTMAND) ELABIT etn ee CPE nO rh a 


Universe is under law. Actions. Will and action. 
Will and motive. Will and neuron patterns. Types of 
will. Habits. Habits and Will Forming habits. Econ- 
omy of habit. Habit formation is progressive. Open- 
mindedness. Fixity of habit and its handicap. Perse- 
verance. Second mental wind. Fatigue, its causes. Sleep. 
Incentives and their power. Lifting oneself to higher 
levels. Deliberation. Inhibition. Will and habit break- 
ing. Will and knowledge. Field of knowledge. Plan for 
reading. 


INTEREST (AND DATTENTIONI ieee cikihety els ante 


Arousing attention. Stimuli. Epiphenomenalism. Pur- 
pose in animals and in men. Things attended to at differ- 


PAGE 


134 


158 


207 


CHAPTER 


CONTENTS 


ent ages. Scope of attention. Attention and bodily accom- 
modation. Selective factors. Catching the attention. 
Voluntary and involuntary attention. Interest. Effort. 
Natural interests. Divided interests. Ends and means 
often far apart. Training of interest and attention. New 
interests. Sources of interests. Physical universe, hu- 
manity, God. Concentrated attention. Sustained interest 
and attention. 


re SUB CONSCIOUSNESS i He Ul UCU CIN te ur Feu vsunMu, 


XI: 


XII. 


Cellular intelligence. Changes in organism. Nerve 
energy. Types of behavior. Mind and growth of organs. 
Instincts. Instinctive behavior. Intelligent behavior. 
Freedom. Wakefulness of mind and body. Subconscious 
direction. Heredity. Lower and higher levels of mind 
complexes. Mental diseases. Nervousness and “nerves.” 
Abnormal dissociations. Loss of memory. Functional 
diseases. Psychotherapy. Misconceptions about hypnosis. 
Hypnosis and sleep. Practical uses of psychotherapy. 
Psychoanalysis. Dreams. Hallucinations. |§ Phobias. 
Hysterias and their cure. 


LEG NECIGCUST GON TROL Ge een nee, le Gia ARO MMO A iM 


Ideas possess innate energy. Emotional state and 
physical expression. Impellent energy. Tropisms. Ideas. 
Concentration. Mind mastery. Consciousness controls 
subconsciousness. Content of consciousness. Impulse. 
Instinct. Conscious control. Conscious control new to 
race. Limiting subconsciousness. Power of suggestion. 
“Know thyself.” Ideal. The thing to be done. Dis- 
cover latent resources. Mental assertion and physical 
act. Ability to do depends upon ability to know. 


TEMPERAMENTS, VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND 


STLREIREL SOUNDER A TL LAL SGM lett UE OR Dy VALI oN 


Temperaments. Achievements and endowments. Classi- 
fication of temperaments,—sanguine, melancholy, choleric, 
phlegmatic. Reading character by observation. Voca- 
tional guidance by observational methods. Not enough 
facts. Cannot tell heredity, experience, nor training. 
Psychological tests. Not all born equal. Difference be- 
tween knowledge and intelligence. Innate potentialities. 
Army tests and what they show. Occupations and pro- 
fessions. Know, control, and deny thyself. Success, its 
ideals and attainments. Success elements—knowledge, 
right, truth, justice, service, forgiveness. Ask for self 
only what one asks for all. 


Vil 


PAGE 


230 


257 


284 


Vill 
CHAPTER 


XIII. 


CONTENTS 


GRGOU PSUA NDU RACES Gren inte een nee 


New Ideas. Group consciousness. Enlarging con- 
sciousness. Psychological factors. Motives. Race an- 
tagonisms. Japanese. Nordics. Education. Individual 
and group. Race superiority. Likeness of men. Solu- 
tion of problems. The forum method. 


PAGE 


S)8h8, 


PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


CHAPTER I 
MACHINE THE MIND USES 


Psychology finds its subject matter in the experience of 
human individuals. Up to the early part of the last century the 
science was largely introspective, and most of the emphasis was 
placed upon the consideration of the intellect. Later the will 
came in for a good share of attention, and in recent years the 
attention has been turned more directly to the emotions. 
Psychologists have come to recognize that the intellect alone 
does not make mind, that the mind is greater than intellect, 
greater than will, greater than emotions. It is the sum of all 
of these in their various manifestations. 

I think, feel, and will; but J am not thinking, feeling, and 
willing: Jam more than they. They are transient, / am perma- 
nent. J have the experience of feeling, thinking, and willing. 
There is a continuity about myself that is not true of any, or 
all of them. I am a personality, and psychology that deals 
with my experience must deal with a personality—one that 
looks back upon yesterday, knows today, and plans for to- 
morrow. 

When we think of experience, we think of something hap- 
pening, or of something being done. Change has taken place 
and we know of the change. The change is manifested thru 
some form of bodily activity, or of remembered bodily activity. 
The fact that we are aware of the change lies at the basis of 


consciousness. 
I 


2 PRACTIGADV PSY CHOLCOGY: 


Psychology, then, must deal with experience of a person- 
ality which is conditioned by bodily activity. There must be a 
correlation of the psychological processes with consciousness. 
The study of the subject ought to make fairly clear the funda- 
mental principles of mental activity. 

Practical Psychology is an attempt to apply these princi- 
ples to personal development and to the daily task. It is safe 
to say that everyone is using every day some of the principles 
of psychology, often without knowing what they are, just as 
the boy who leaves his jackknife on the back door-step over 
night and finds it “‘rusted” in the morning does not know that 
the rusting has anything to do with the science of chemistry. 
We hear of the psychology of advertising, the psychology of 
salesmanship, the psychology of healing, etc. Psychology has 
been applied in some degree to problems of formal education, by 
the physicians in their practice, by lawyers in dealing with 
criminals and with juries. In recent years many attempts have 
been made to apply the principles of psychology to industry, 
and while not much headway has been made enough has been 
done to make industrial leaders anxious to know more about 
the subject. As always happens in such cases much that is 
not psychology has been “sold” as the real thing. Character 
analysis in most cases has nothing, or very little, to do with 
fundamental principles of psychology. Yet psychology has a 
large contribution to make to personal development, to all 
forms of industry, and to all forms of social organization. 

In every activity today except hunting and fishing one must 
come into contact with men. Modern civilization is based 
upon human contacts. Yet almost no attention has been given 
to putting within the reach and understanding of the common 
man any of the knowledge that the science of psychology has 
acquired. In industry the best experts are secured to select 
raw material, to supervise the processes, to test the finished 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 3 


product, to merchandise it. In fact the closest study of every- 
thing is made except of the most vital factor in the business— 
the men. 

We are just beginning to recognize the importance of a 
knowledge of men, their impulses, desires, hopes, ambitions, 
and also of the necessity of their understanding us, and our 
impulses, desires, hopes, and ambitions as well as their own. 
They cannot understand us until they understand themselves. 
When Alexander Pope said “The proper study of mankind is 
man,” he made a statement the importance of which we are 
just beginning to realize. 

Every man is a salesman. He has ability to sell. He may 
sell ability direct to an employer. He may sell the goods his 
ability has produced, but he must sell and buy as long as he 
remains a part of any civilized community. ‘‘No man liveth 
to himself alone.” Psychology will help one to discover his 
ability and enable him to market it to better advantage. It 
will help him to increase his knowledge and to make what he 
has worth more by teaching him how to use it. The ability to 
apply a knowledge of psychology to the handling of a group of 
men in industry, to organizing a selling force, to planning an 
advertising campaign, to the selection of men for office, for 
factory, or for the road is an ability that the world wants and 
stands ready to pay for as has been demonstrated over and 
over again. 

This is a day when the search for values is engaging the 
attention of men everywhere. It engages the business man,, 
and the scientist, as well as the expert in religion. The ques- 
tion of use is on everyone’s tongue. What is the use? What 
is it good for? What can he do? The value of waste or 
by-products is an ever present one in every industry. There 
is an unrealized value in many of these by-products, which the 


4 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


discovery of new processes or more efficient carrying out of an 
old one, will make available. 

What is true of industry and industrial processes is true in 
a larger way of man himself. There is hardly one in ten who 
knows himself well enough to know what he can do best, or 
the circumstances under which he can do it. Scientists say 
that most of us use only from ten to thirty percent of our 
ability, not because we are lazy or indifferent but because we 
do not know how to apply our mental and physical powers. 

Psychology helps men to. understand themselves. Literally 
hundreds of men who have studied the subject in the last few 
years have discovered in themselves values and abilities they 
did not know existed. The results have been an enlarged 
vision, an increased economic value, often a new adjustment 
or a readjustment in industry or profession that has meant, 
greater satisfaction in the day’s work. 

Mental Mastery.—Two ideas have been prominent in the 
past concerning man and the world. The older one was that 
man was to take the world as he found it and use it. It had 
been provided for him by someone. That Being had placed 
him here for a season. He was to make the best of the situa- 
tion. He had been born into a system and was what he was 
because of that system. All his rights and privileges were his 
by inheritance. He did not know much about the world and 
he did not need to. By some process some knowledge had 
been obtained by those of influence which they were to use for 
the good of the common folk. This idea produced aristocracy 
and feudalism. 

The newer idea which made its appearance with Galileo and 
which was clarified by Francis Bacon emphasized the fact that 
man was not bound by any system—that he need not accept 
the world as he found it. He could remake the world and 
exploit its resources for his own satisfaction. The world was 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 5 


composed of raw material which he could make over into 
many things. 

Under the old idea the world made very little progress. It 
discovered fire, invented the bow and arrow, made pottery, but 
it never learned to control power to any extent. It domesti- 
cated animals, used to a degree the winds and waves, invented 
some simple mechanical devices and, previous to the French 
Revolution had produced a low grade explosive, but these were 
the results of accident more than the results of diligent search 
for means to control power. 

So rapidly has the idea of remaking and controlling the 
world progressed that since the overthrow of the Holy Roman 
empire twenty-six new sciences have arisen. There has been 
a marvelous extension of man’s power of control in the physical 
realm. He has learned to control the power of steam, elec- 
tricity, and chemical reactions, and to apply this power to 
transportation, communication, and industry. 

In the biological realm he has used his increased knowledge 
and power to banish diseases. Bubonic plague, cholera, yellow 
fever, smallpox, malaria, sleeping sickness, and hookworm 
are no longer terrors to man. He has learned the secrets of 
control in the biological realm so that he has materially in- 
creased the food supply of the world thru plant and animal 
breeding. He is now actually making his world. 

Just as man has come to recognize the necessity of control 
in the physical and biological, he is coming to recognize the 
necessity of control in the psychological and the sociological 
fields. He is already beginning to realize that in remaking the 
world he has remade himself—that in making laws for the con- 
trol of society, in the development of social organizations, and 
in setting up governments he is making instincts, emotions, and 
ideas do for him what they have never done before. 

The mind of man has grown from humble beginnings with- 


6 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


out much attempt to see ahead. “Sufficient unto the day” has 
been his motto. It has reached a stage approaching adult 
vigor and is in a position to begin to direct its own course thru 
conscious control. 

Just as surely as changes have occurred in the physical and 
biological realm as a result of man’s endeavors, just so surely 
some changes have occurred in man. The changes which 
he has brought about with plants, animals, minerals, and metals 
have reacted favorably upon himself. He is approaching the 
time when mental mastery should be his goal. 

Mental mastery, or self-control, can come about only thru 
self-knowledge, and it is to the field of psychology that we 
look for help. When I speak of knowing one’s self, I mean 
the whole man, physically, physiologically, mentally, and 
morally. One cannot fall short of this and succeed supremely. 
What this course aims to do is to indicate the road, point the 
direction, describe the tools, and show how they are used. 

Relation of Mind and Body.—The mind is related to the 
body as it is not to any other object. Perhaps we would be 
nearer right if we thot of the body and mind as two parts of 
the same unit rather than thinking of them as separate entities 
acting together. We do not know anything of the mind’s 
activity except as it expresses itself thru the body. There are 
many speculations about the activity of the mind apart from 
the body, but no experience has been established which satisfies 
the scientists, one of whom is the psychologist, of such a fact. 
It is to the body that we must look for the expressions of 
mental activity. 

Bodily Activity.—Whatever has been accomplished by the 
race, or by individuals has been done through bodily activity. 
One may dream of what he will do, but unless he acts—tells 
his plans to others, writes them, or carries them out himself— 
nothing will be accomplished. Unless men do more than think, 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 7 


unless they plow and sow the seed, write the poems, build the 
bridges, launch the ships, harvest the crops, deliver the ora- 
tions, preach the sermons, nothing results from the thinking 
except the exercise of the mind that did the thinking. 

On the other hand, wherever we see railroads built, tun- 
tels dug, schools established, monuments erected, books printed, 
we infer that someone has been thinking. Someone has 
dreamed and the dream has come true. The real dreamers — 
bring the things to pass. 

Forever they are dreamers, 


Who make their dreams come true. 
—Buiss Carman, “Ode to Edward Seventh.” 


Control of Bodily Activity—There has been much dis- 
cussion in recent years in regard to the influence of mind over 
matter, and the question is not settled to the satisfaction of all 
yet, but in general, we may say that for all practical purposes, 
all bodily activity is caused and controlled by the mind. 

When we speak of cause we mean a certain sequence, or 
order, in which things are arranged so that they always stand 
in the same order, never getting the cart before the horse. 
Finding things always occurring in such order, we say the first 
causes the second. Often we do not know enough about the 
conditions to be sure. A thing may be the occasion and not 
the ultimate cause; but if we find the events or phenomena 
appearing in the same order time after time we come to asso- 
ciate them as cause and effect. So often have we found thot 
preceding action that when we find bodily action we postulate 
mental activity as its cause. 

There are a number of reasons why we do this. Have you 
ever been hungry and have someone mention food, and then 
find your “mouth water”? Pawlow carried on many experi- 
ments with dogs, and discovered that if a picture of food was 
placed before the dog the salivary glands began at once to 


8 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


secrete saliva. That is, the idea being aroused in the mind 
caused the salivary glands to act. Bodily action followed the 
mental activity. Any stimulus that will arouse the idea pro- 
duces the same result. 

We know how digestion is disturbed when we are sad. 
We do not desire food. A picture of food placed before us 
at such time does not result in salivary glandular activity, be- 
cause the mind is too intent upon something else, yet the im- 
pressions from the picture were registered in the brain just 
the same as before. So it seems that unless the mind holds the 
proper idea orders will not be issued to the salivary glands. 
When one is frightened, the heart beats faster, breaths come 
short and quick, and a number of other bodily reactions occur, 
due (we quite naturally and properly infer) to the frightened 
condition. 

Ideas Tend to Express Themselves in Bodily Activity. 
—We have stated that all action is caused and controlled by 
the mind. We want to go a step further and say that all ideas 
tend to express themselves in bodily activity. Every idea seeks 
expression. The only means the mind has for expression is 
thru the body. One idea may express itself, or tend to, thru 
external organic action by striking with the fist or by calling 
names with the tongue, or by wishing a friend “a merry 
Christmas.”” Another idea may tend to express itself thru 
some internal bodily activity which may be chemical and not 
organic at all. You will notice that we have said ‘“‘tend to 
express.” Often one is able partially to prevent the expression 
of an idea. He may be angry and yet not express in words 
what his tendency is. He has been told to count ten before he 
speaks when angry, so he does not speak. His anger has sub- 
sided before he finished counting. But even then he did not 
prevent entirely the expression. A change of countenance, 
quick breathing, and perhaps a turning away gave some ex- 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 9 


pression. When a tendency to act or speak is suppressed, we 
say it is inhibited. 

Remembering that every idea tends to express itself in 
bodily action, it is well for us to take heed as to what ideas we 
allow entrance to our minds, The saying, “‘As one thinketh, so is 
he” is virtually true; for one is bound to do the thing he con- 
tinues to think of doing. He is quite sure to become the kind 
of man he continues to think of becoming. The universe is so 
organized that each one has within himself the power to 
become what he wills. 

The Body a Machine for Doing Work.—The body is a 
machine for doing work, and no matter what our theories may 
be as to its ultimate relation to the mind, it serves the mind as 
an instrument of expression. If the best expression of the 
mind is to be attained, the body must be kept in such condi- 
tion that it can function properly. One would hardly think of 
trying to drive a car without some careful attempts to under- 
stand the principles of its operation. Yet here is a machine 
vastly more complicated and delicate than an automobile and 
most of us take little or no pains to understand its mechanism. 
I suppose the reason is that it is made so nearly “fool proof” 
that it goes without much attention. When the car gets out of 
order we call up the garage and are “towed in.” When the 
body gets out of order, we send for the physician, and sooner 
or later are “towed out.” 

Ordinary good sense would indicate a sufficient knowledge 
of the operations of the body to enable us to take proper care 
of it. This knowledge, if observed, will not only keep us in 
better health, and enable us to live longer, but will give us very 
much better service while we do live. 

The Cell Theory of Life.—In order to have a good idea 
of the body and its functions, it will be necessary for us to take 
a brief survey of life and its development. The fact that life 


IO PRAGTIGAL PSY GHOLOG™ 


begins with the egg was unknown to men of pre-scientific days. 
They thot life was due to the entering of a “‘life-principle” into 
the body and that death occurred when it departed. We know 
that life as we commonly conceive it begins with the egg and 
that death is due to the cessation of the process of oxidation 
in the body. 

The Living Cell the Basis of Life.—About a generation 
or so ago, Schwann of Germany and Huxley of England 
established the theory that the living cell is the basis of all life, 
that each plant and animal, including man, begins as a single 
cell. The cell is able to live, breathe, feel, move, gather food, 
avoid danger, adapt itself to conditions, and pass its charac- 
teristics on to the next generation, 

The Amceba.—The parts of a cell are the protoplasm and 
the nucleus. The nucleus and its network of tiny threadlike 
fibers are the only hint of a brain and nervous system the cell 
has. In the ameba (the simplest of the single-celled animals), 
any part may on the instant become an arm, a leg, a stomach, 
etc. Subsequent evolution adds no new function, but develops 
special structures to perform them. As these special structures 
develop, we shall find a distribution of duties somewhat along 
the line of division of labor in modern industry. This we shall 
consider later. 

The Amphioxus.—For ages the single-celled animals were 
the only ones on earth; but thru the slightest variations, higher 
forms appeared, each compoéed of many cells instead of one, 
a sort of colony, or community. While this stage was being 
reached new plans were worked out for feeding, informing, 
scavenging, and protecting the colony. Amphioxus is the 
name given to one of the little animals. It stands a long way 
up the scale from the amceba, but is very much farther away 
from the highest of the class of which he was the forerunner, 
the vertebrates. He has a mouth and a stomach and the sim- 


MACHINE THE MIND USES II 


: O 
) O O 
PO © & 
Arik a 1O) 
AB tv 


Fic. 1—An ameeba is about 1/50 of an inch in diameter. 
These sketches show an ameeba getting its food and swallowing 
it. When it comes into contact with a particle of food-plant 
or animal, or a tiny piece of something else, it just begins to 
wrap itself around the particle until it is completely sur- 
rounded. Any indigestible matter passes on thru the body and 
out. The amceba is a minute particle of protoplasm, and each 
little animal contains a nucleus A, and a nucleolus B, besides 
water spaces called vacuoles C. 






plest form of a backbone ever discovered. There is a little 
cavity in the upper side of it in which a nerve tube rests. From 





a 


Fic. 2—The ameeba, like all animals, grows until it gets so 
large that food enough cannot be absorbed to keep it increasing 
in size. Then it begins to divide as seen in Figure 2. The 
division takes place thru the nucleus which is the very center 
of life, whether it be in plant or animal cells, and when com- 
plete each part is a fully equipped amceba and the process of 
growth and division continues indefinitely. 


it there are sent out very slender nerve fibers to different parts 
of the body. It reproduces itself by laying a single egg which, 
when fertilized, develops as does the amceba; but instead of 


I2 BRACTIOANIE VR SY GEOLOGY 


separating and parting company and each becoming a separate 
individual, the parts all hold together within the egg, and 
finally the young amphioxus comes out or, as we say, hatches. 
After hatching the cells all remain together, each group keeping 
its own place and doing its own work as part of the group. 
The function of each group of cells is determined while the 
creature is yet in the egg. 





Fic. 3—The amphioxus is about 114 to 2 inches long and 
lives buried in the sand on the seashore. It is a hollow tube 
thru which water flows and from which food is caught as it 
passes. In the figure, A is the nerve tube, B the backbone, C 
the opening where the water flows in and D where it flows out. 
The amphioxus has no head or tail but does have a mouth, 
stomach, simple form of backbone, and a nerve tube. 


If you take a hollow rubber ball and press one side in and 
cement the edges of the fold together, you will have a fairly 
good idea of how the amphioxus is made, for it is a hollow 
tube so folded that a part of the outside becomes the inside, 
and because it is the inside it has different work to do. Division 
of labor is established among the various groups of cells. 

The outer layer of cells becomes the skin and nervous sys- 
tem. The middle layer becomes muscles, blood vessels, and 
egg-producing part of the machine. The inside layer becomes 
the stomach and other parts of the digestive apparatus. The 
nervous system co-ordinates the whole body so that its parts 
can act together when necessary. 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 13 


The Human Nervous System.—There is an increase in 
complexity in the evolution of the nervous system from am- 
phioxus to man. In the human embryo there is a hollow tube, 
modified and enlarged at the upper end. The nerve tissue 
thickens at the back or the dorsal side of the embryo and 
gradually folds over forming the tube. At the upper end three 
enlargements are formed by the unequal thickening of the 
walls of the tube. From these enlargements the brain de- 
velops by a series of outgrowths and foldings or crumplings. 
Along the spinal cord there appear little branches which develop 
into the spinal nerves and into the sympathetic nerves. In the 
human being there is a mutual relation between the brain and 
the spinal cord and a complete unity of nervous action. 

Each human being begins as a single cell. The process of 
development continues until the body composed of billions of 
billions of cells is complete. In the human body instead of 
having only three groups of cells as the amphioxus has, we 
have some thirty different kinds, each doing its particular part 
to keep the body functioning properly. We have nerve cells, 
smooth muscle cells, hair cells, bone cells, blood cells, nail cells, 
skin cells, etc. Each cell is born, grows, performs all the 
functions of a single living being, reproduces itself and dies. 

Cellular Intelligence.—The question arises at this point 
as to what keeps these different groups of cells, or any single 
cell, at work. We do not have to give attention to them all 
in order to have them do their work. We do not have to say 
to ourselves, Now it is time to breathe; now, to digest food; 
now, to secrete bile; now to make the hair grow. If we had to 
give attention to the smallest part of any of these functions, 
we would not be able to keep alive. However, we know these 
various activities are carried on from birth to death without 
our giving much, if any, thot to them. The question is, what 
makes the machine go? 


14. PRACTICAL ARO Gay 


It is what may be called “cellular intelligence.” There is 
an intelligence, if we may use the term for any activity so low 
down in the scale of life, that takes charge of the processes 
of the cell in a multicellular body just as we saw is done in the 
case of the single-celled amceba. Dr. Carrel of the Rocke- 
feller Institute has demonstrated that living cells taken from 
a body, properly protected and fed, can be kept alive for long 
periods; not only that, but they grow. In 1912 he took some 
tissue from the heart of an embryo chick and placed it in a 
culture medium. It is living and growing yet. There is life in 
each organ, a “livingness” in each complete organism, so tena- 
cious that a part of the organism may be removed and kept 
alive and growing while the remainder dies and goes to decay. 

Single-celled animals never die a natural death and 
biologists are beginning to wonder if multicellular animals 
need to. The cells of a human lung can be made to live in- 
definitely when placed outside the human body where they are 
not compelled to.cooperate with groups of cells in other organs. 
This specialized service, differentiation of function, or division 
of labor, whatever we may call it, sooner or later causes a 
break and eventually death. The break may come in the stom- 
ach group, or the liver group, and so on. The inability of any 
group of cells to function properly throws the whole body out 
of order and death results. 

It has been discovered that X-rays of a certain intensity 
will kill weak cells and not injure the strong ones. If weak 
cells can be destroyed by X-rays or by radium before they can 
kill the whole body, life can be lengthened indefinitely. To 
bring this about is the problem biologists are now trying to 
solve. 

Let us turn our attention again to the amceba. We find 
that it requires all the power it has to perform its vital func- 
tions because every part of the little organism is engaged in 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 15 


every activity. It has about all it can do to keep alive but, as 
the development of higher forms of life proceeds and the 
differentiation of function becomes more firmly established, 
an economy is effected whereby not quite all of the effort of 
every group is required all the time to keep the machine going. 
There are shortest possible periods of leisure in which, so to 
speak, the living animal has time to “think.” It chooses more 
wisely in food selection and more accurately between friends 
and enemies, has time to make a trifle better adaptation to en- 
vironment, and so makes possible a further and higher plane of 
life. Some of those activities to which it was in its lower 
stages obliged to give all of its attention have now been given 
over to habits and later become so ingrained in the very struc- 
ture and life of the cells that we call them instincts. They have 
become so essential that life cannot be preserved without them. 

We all recognize that the thing to which we must give our 
entire conscious attention today may become in a few months 
such a well established habit that we perform the act without 
any more thot than to decide to begin the process. May we not 
also assume that, if that habit makes only the minutest change 
in a nerve center and if the same habit becomes established in 
our children with the same minute changes that in the long 
ages of unfolding the basis of that action may be shifted from 
habit to instinct? Of course we do not know enough about our 
ancestors to be sure what they were. No one knows enough 
about the mental characteristics of an ancestor of ten genera- 
tions ago and of the intermediary generations to determine 
just what particular changes have been made in the successive 
nervous systems including his own body, but ten generations 
are as nothing in the processes of the ages. Certainly changes 
in the nervous systems of the animal kingdom have been made, 
and so far as evidence goes every modification has come thru 
influences at work within the organism influenced by its 


16 ERAT CAT i Sy CEI) IAD tn 


environment and not by injecting of another force from the 
outside. 

These changes in the nervous organism have resulted in 
an increased efficiency and in a larger leisure. Division of 
labor among the groups of cells has resulted as a division of 
labor in industry has. Man has time consciously to direct his 





Ff 
"Na, D 
"Uh (ny 





Fic. 4.—A human embryo of six weeks growth showing the 
spinal cord and its outgrowth in skull. Notice how A, B, C, 
D, E, and F are folded or crumpled back upon the upper end 
of the spinal cord. 


efforts. He can make plans for future activity. He can set 
goals to be attained. He has time to weigh the results of 
efforts of other men and of his own. Where formerly he 
could see as far ahead as the next day, now he sees ahead 
weeks and months and years. This has enabled him to become 
conscious of innumerable things of which his earlier ancestors 
were entirely ignorant. Psychology should help us to under- 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 17 


stand ourselves so we may employ wisely this larger con- 
sciousness. 

The Cerebrospinal System.—We must understand the 
nervous mechanism a little better because it plays such a large 
part in life. The human nervous system is composed of the 
cerebrospinal nervous system and the sympathetic nervous 
system. The cerebrospinal system is composed of the central 
nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, ‘The cen- 
tral system consists of the brain and the spinal cord which 
runs two-thirds of the way down the spinal column. The 
peripheral system extends to the surface of the body, to the 
special senses, and to the muscles. 

The Brain.—All the power one exerts is thru his nervous 
system. Each one of us is protected and kept alive thru its 
functions. We are made aware of the need of food, we are 
informed of a headache, we are warned of fire, we are told 
about cold feet and of toothache, in fact we are kept fully 
posted about all of these and many other things that are essen- 
tial to our health and safety by a properly functioning nervous 
system. We might starve, freeze, or be run over by an auto- 
mobile were it not for these continual advices which we receive. 
The brain is the most important part of the entire system be- 
cause by means of it we come to understand what these various 
messages mean. It makes possible the interpretation of nerve 
language. It will be necessary for us to get a little more 
familiar with this important part of the system. 

The average weight of the brain at birth is twelve ounces. 
The average weight in adulthood is three pounds. From birth 
to adulthood the brain not only increases in size but increases 
in complexity. The growth in complexity of structure is really 
more important than the increase in size. At birth there are 
about ten billion cells in the brain and the number in any one 
brain never increases altho, through disease and injuries, the 


18 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


number may be decreased. While the number of cells is not in- 
creased, the size of the cells is. The increase in the size of the 
cells depends somewhat on what we ask them to do for us. 
I suppose many of us never call all of the cells of our brain into 
activity and so never realize to the full our capacity either to 
work or to think. 





Fic. 5 shows the upper surface of the 
cerebrum, indicating the location of the more 
prominent fissures. The fissure of Rolando 
is indicated by A, the fissure of Sylvius by 
B, and the parietal occipital fissure by C. It 
also indicates the lobes of the cerebrum. 

The brain is composed of the cerebrum and the cerebellum. 
The cerebellum is the lower part of the brain. It is the organ 
of equilibrium and of motion. It receives the sensory impulses 
from the skin, the muscles, joints, and semi-circular canals of 
the ear and from the eye. The impulses from the cerebellum 
help to maintain the right degree of muscular tension. So far 
as is known the cerebellum has nothing to do with conscious- 
ness and operates independently of it. 

The cerebrum is the upper part of the brain and in the adult 
nearly covers the cerebellum. It is in reality the thinking cap. 
It is divided into two nearly equal parts somewhat resembling 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 19 


the meat of an English walnut. The cerebrum grows faster 
than the skull and so forms folds and wrinkles on its surface 
which are called convolutions. Between these folds are spaces 
which are called fissures. The mind grows as the brain grows 
and cannot grow any faster. In all cases where the brain does 
not develop to normal, the intelligence of the individual is 
below normal, ranging anywhere from that of an idiot to that 
of a high grade moron. We often hear the expression, “He 
hasn’t any brains,’’ when what is really meant is that he does 
not use what he has, but in many cases he does not have any 
brains, or at least not good ones. One cannot use what he 
does not have. 

In appearance the brain is quite the color of a piece of 
putty. It is covered with a layer of gray matter not over an 
eighth of an inch thick. This covering of gray matter is a 
very essential part of the brain as we shall see. 

Thru studying diseases and by examining persons who have 
been injured scientists have come to know that certain func- 
tions of the brain are located in certain definite parts, because 
any injury or disease of that part interferes with the function 
and may prevent it entirely. 

The lower part of the cerebrum is the seat of control for 
certain vital functions, such as breathing, heart-beat, secreting 
saliva, swallowing, etc. These are in a sense involuntary as 
they can be performed without consciousness. 

The middle part of the cerebrum is quite a large region and 
is the seat of control of voluntary movements. It is the func- 
tion of the middle part of the cerebrum to respond to auditory 
and visual reflexes. Sensory impulses from the retina of the 
eye and from the cochlea of the ear enter here into synaptic 
connections with muscle-nerves of the face, eyes, and other 
parts of the body. 

The fore part of the brain is the seat of the perceptive, 


20 RRAGCTIGAU VE SY Gi Qin® Give 


reflective, and interpretative powers of the mind as indicated by 
Mills and others. That is, they place the seat of the higher 
powers of the mind in the fore part of the cerebrum. 

The outer layer of the cerebrum and of the cerebellum is 
called the cortex, which means bark. It is the gray covering 
just referred to. The cortex of the cerebrum is much more 
highly differentiated as to functions than that of the cere- 





Fic. 6 presents left side view of the left 
hemisphere of the cerebrum, and indicates the 
localization of functions in the brain areas, 
or centers. 


bellum. In the cortex of the cerebrum are various centers or 
areas, such as visual, auditory, frontal association, olfactory, 
etc.; that is, only one kind of impulse gets to the same center, 
or area. The nerve processes of the cerebral cortex are directly 
associated with consciousness. 

Association Centers.—There are large areas in the brain 
that do not serve any sensory or motor function, but serve only 
to connect sensory and motor centers. They form association 
tracts which bind together all parts of the brain. Mental ability 
depends rather upon the power of association than upon the 
size of the brain. 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 21 


The Thalamus.—tThere is a large mass of nerve fibers 
lying in the center of the brain called the thalamus, All sen- 
sory impulses except those from the olfactory membrane pass 
thru the thalamus before reaching the cerebral cortex. These 
impulses undergo some modification which results probably in 
their establishing a closer association with other incoming 
impulses so that there is more or less correlation before the 
nerve energy reaches the cortex. 

The Medulla.—The medulla is between the spinal cord 
and the cerebellum and is about an inch long. It is a sort of 
gateway between the brain and the body. All sensory impulses 
from the trunk to the brain and all from the brain to the 
trunk pass thru the medulla. Here are found the nerve cen- 
ters that control circulation and respiration. 

The Spine and Spinal Cord.—The spinal column is com- 
posed of thirty-one irregular bones placed one above another, 
each called a vertebra. There is a round hole in each side of 
each bone, sixty-two in all. Out thru each hole passes a nerve 
about as large as a goose quill. Each is called a spinal nerve 
because it comes from the spinal cord. Each nerve has two 
roots; one is smooth and the other has a little nodule, or 
ganglion, somewhat similar to the little nodules found on clover 
roots. Each nerve has a sort of insulation so that the impulses 
cannot be lost or dissipated; then both are wrapped together 
much as we wrap two electric wires together. Every message 
going to the brain passes thru the root with the ganglion in it, 
and every one going out passes thru the smooth root. The 
spinal cord is the main highway of all travel for all impulses 
between the brain and the body. 

Each of these spinal nerves continues to subdivide into 
from two hundred to twelve hundred fibers, often passing out 
_of the wrappings of one bundle into the wrappings of another. 
Before considering the function of the spinal cord, let us 


22 PRACTICAL ORS Y CHOLO GY: 


consider the neuron or nerve cell. The neuron is composed of 
four parts: (1) Cell-body; (2) Dendrite; (3) Axon; (4) 
End-brush. | 

Let us remember that in the nervous system gray color 
means nerve cells and white means nerve fibers. The vital part 
of each neuron is the cell-body. Its special 
function is to conduct the energy called 
neurokyme which the neuron generates. 
Another function is probably the nutrition 
of the neuron. 

Dendrite (from dendron, Greek for 
tree) is the name given to a part of the 
neuron because of its branching. It con- 
ducts the impulse toward the cell-body. 

The axon is to the neuron what the wire 
is to the telephone system. It transmits or 
conducts the nerve impulses away from the 
cell-body. There is usually only one axon 

Fig. 7 is a sketch to ga neuron. Each dendrite and each axon 
of a neuron showing , j 
the different parts. is covered with a medullary sheath. Many 
BN Be) poe paeie scientists claim that the neurons in the 
cerebrospinal and in the sympathetic sys- 
tems do not function until the medullary sheath has been pro- 
duced. This may account for the late functioning of some of 
these neurons. The child has few medullated neurons when 
born, but they develop so rapidly that in a few weeks or months 
certain fundamental tracts are functioning regularly. The 
medullary sheath is a fatty substance produced by the neurons 
and serves as a sort of insulation. The axons covered with it 
make the white portions of the spinal cord and brain. The 
axons of the sympathetic system are not covered with it and 
so are gray in color. 
The end-brush of the neuron intertwines with the dendrites 





MACHINE THE MIND USES 23 


of another neuron yet does not come into actual contact with 
them. The end-brush may end in a muscle or in a gland. In 
the first case muscular action results, in the second chemical 
action results. The neurons which connect sensory with motor 
neurons are called connectors. The brain is composed largely 
of connector neurons and as a result there are millions of 
synapses in the brain. These gaps tend to retard the speed of 
the impulse and so delay action. 


chor Five? 


\c° ane 





é Meter Frber 
Fic. 8.—Reflex arc. 

The dendrites are microscopic and the axons are micro- 
scopic in diameter, altho not in length. Many of them are 
several feet long. One reaches from the top of the head to the 
small of the back. 

The cell-bodies are also microscopic, measuring from 
1-160 to 1-6000 of an inch in diameter, The cell-body con- 
tains neurofibrils which extend into the axons and serve to 
help conduct impulses. It also contains chromatin, a substance 
concerned in the metabolic processes of the neuron, Overwork 
breaks down the chromatin. These metabolic changes in the 
_cell-body (which may be chemical) may be the cause of cer- 
tain nerve impulses. 


24. PRAGTIGALR? SY CHOEOGY 


The ten billions of neurons of the brain are divided into 
groups, each performing its own work. Each group responds 
only to a particular stimuli, just as axons conduct only one 
kind of message. One group of these neurons responds to 
impressions which we interpret as sight; another as hearing; 
another as touching, etc. Each of these groups has to do with 
only one set of impulses. It is important to recognize, too, 
that each group depends upon stimulation for its development. 
If for any reason the end nerves leading to one of these 
groups is destroyed not only is the ability of the nerve to func- 
tion lacking but the neurons of the group never develop. 

The Function of the Spinal Cord.—The spinal cord has 
two functions; one, to convert sensory impulses directly into 
motor impulses, without the necessity of consulting the cerebral 
cortex about the matter; another to transmit impulses to higher 
or lower levels of the nervous system. 

We must remember that when these nerves subdivide into 
hundreds of fibers the ends, while never actually meeting each 
other, are in the same field and so near that messages may 
pass from one to the other as influence passes from magnet to 
metal in an electrical field. These gaps as we have already 
indicated are called by the psychologist synapses. These con- 
tacts are purely functional and not anatomical. There is no 
actual contact of the nerve fibers. There may be several fibers 
within the field and each fiber and synapse may be regarded 
as offering a greater or less resistance to the flow of the energy 
or neurokyme. Here, as we might expect, the line of least re- 
sistance is taken, and having once been selected, it is very likely 
to be selected the next time; and so thru repetition a sort of 
thru connection is established. Altho each neuron has possible 
connections with many others, it is possible to get a “thru line.” 
Habit is formed by getting a “thru line’ so often that the con- 
nection becomes almost, if not quite, automatic. 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 25 


The Reflex Arc.—The reflex arc is the functional unit as 
the neuron is the structural unit of the nervous system. In its 
simplest form. the reflex arc consists of a stimulation affecting 
the sensory nerve which leads to the sensory ganglion in the 
spinal cord, then thru the spinal cord to the motor ganglion 
and then out thru a motor nerve to a muscle. Sometimes there 
are a number of neurons between the first and last. These 
intermediate neurons are called connector 
or association neurons. 

The Sympathetic Nervous System. 
—The sympathetic nervous system is com- 
posed of a chain of ganglia lying outside of 
the spinal cord. The chain is composed of 
forty-nine ganglia—twenty-four on the 
right side of the spine, twenty-four on the 
left, and one in front of the lowest bone of 
the spine. Each ganglion is connected with 
its neighbor above and below by a rope of Fig. 09 is a sketch 
axons which hangs in a loop from the upper SVN seek Se 
end of the spine. brum showing  cell- 

The neurons of the different ganglia Hedy er: eon 

send off axons to definite parts of the body brush D. 
—heart, stomach, liver, etc. At these different centers, the 
axons are closely interwoven, forming a network called a 
plexus. A number of small ganglia are interwoven with each 
plexus. These plexuses all lie within the body cavity and are 
in close connection with the organ which the plexus controls. 
There are a number of smaller ganglia scattered thruout the 
organism, in the eye-socket, in the thoracic cavity, on the walls 
of the heart, etc. 

The sympathetic system extends to all organs of the 
_abdominal cavity, and to all involuntary muscles. The cerebro- 
spinal system is connected with the sympathetic system thru 





26 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


the spinal nerves, each of which sends two branches to a 
ganglion, one carrying outgoing messages and one incoming 
messages. There is no other known connection between the 
two systems. 

The sympathetic system controls the action of the glands, 
the smooth muscles, peristaltic motion of the stomach and 
intestines, the tension of the arteries, and all the vital functions 
of the body without our being conscious of their operation. 
However, when things go wrong and the stomach does not 
function properly, or when we have taken ptomaine poison into 
the system and something needs to be done about it, impulses 
are sent from the stomach to the sympathetic ganglia, then 
into the spinal cord and thence to the brain, arousing con- 
sciousness. Then, we send for the physician. 

We cannot control the sympathetic system directly, but we 
can influence it thru its connection with the cerebro-spinal 
system, a part of which, the brain, is very closely associated 
with consciousness. 

Mosso of the university of Turin determined that the seat 
of the emotions is in the sympathetic nervous system. So we 
see why we do not want food when we are sad and why we 
have a hard time digesting if we do eat it. Anything that 
disturbs the emotions interferes with digestion. Joy and 
happiness help it; sadness and sorrow hinder it. 

The sympathetic system is controlled by the mind calling 
up the neurons of a central station and making some demand 
upon them. The neurons respond by setting the muscles to 
work. The muscles call for blood, and the ganglia of the 
heart and the blood vessels are compelled to go to work. Cer- 
tain neurons, as we have seen, control others, which accounts 
for the unconscious service that we sometimes get. The rea- 
son the mouth waters when we are hungry and think of food 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 27 


is that the neurons of the brain issue orders to the salivary 
glands and they immediately respond by producing saliva. The 
mere suggestion is sufficient to secure action. The power of 
suggestion to control the functional activities of the body will 
be considered more fully later. 

Consciousness is a characteristic of mental facts by which 
we become aware of them. ‘Mental facts are phenomena that 
can be known to one person only and that one the person 
experiencing them.’ Consciousness means endless change, or 
discrimination. The word means knowing with or together. 
Consciousness indicates mental change, and mental change 
indicates bodily change. Whether consciousness is the cause of 
the bodily change or vice versa scientists are not all agreed. 
However, so far as we know there is no consciousness without 
the action of the cortical cells, but whether all action of the 
cortical cells causes consciousness we do not know. It is the 
commonly accepted opinion that consciousness is a cause rather 
than an effect ; that while the impulses that run thru the nerves 
and ganglions are physical phenomena, the result of these 
is something quite different. 

Those who are inclined to place more emphasis upon the 
psychological processes as the cause of consciousness, point out 
that reflex action is without consciousness, because there are 
very few neurons involved, that when an inconceivably larger 
number of the neurons of the cortex are stimulated, the reac- 
tion is of sufficient force to arouse consciousness, or to cause 
consciousness—that is, that when the cortical cells are involved 
we get consciousness, otherwise not. 

We do not know just when consciousness begins in the in- 
dividual, and none of us can remember when it began in his 
own life. judging from experiences with children, conscious- 
ness appears soon after birth and continues to increase in 
scope and power until maturity, which probably occurs at about 


28 PRA CTICAILVPSY GEOR OG: 


the time of man’s highest mental efficiency. The fact that the 
neurons of the cortex are the latest to develop and that con- 
sciousness cannot develop without neuron reaction accounts for 
the comparatively late appearance of consciousness in the race. 

The insect, animal, or human that can respond to the 
greatest number of impulses, enjoys the highest degree of 
consciousness and of intelligence. The impulses received and 
responded to by the caterpillar, the dog, the Australian Bush- 
man, and the Anglo-Saxon indicate the degree of consciousness 
each possesses. Accidents to the nervous system modify or 
completely destroy consciousness. Diseases and drugs may 
have similar effects. 

As to the relation of consciousness to the nervous system, 
it is possible that a stimulus in the cortex may simply open the 
way for consciousness to appear, as turning the faucet lets the 
water run. The faucet does not cause the water to run, altho 
it cannot run without the faucet being turned. Again, it is 
well to remember that for all practical purposes the body is a 
machine which the mind uses. 

The mind is often thot of as synonymous with conscious- 
ness, but that is not in accordance with common experience. 
There are many activities of the mind carried on without con- 
sciousness. Impressions made upon the neurons of the nervous 
system are retained and interpretations of those impressions 
are retained. Associations are, as we shall see later, formed 
and strengthened without consciousness. All past experiences 
remain a part of the contents of the mind, altho not always in 
consciousness. It is as tho the mind were a great reservoir into 
which the elements of experience, after more or less sorting, 
are poured to be retained until needed for further use. 

There has been a good deal of confusion in regard to dis- 
tinguishing between these different phases of the mental 
activity. Some have spoken of the conscious mind, the sub- 


MACHINE THE MIND USES 20 


conscious and the unconscious mind, thereby seeming to indi- 
cate that we have two or more minds. We want to make it 
perfectly clear that there is only one mind, however many 
forms of manifestation it may have. It seems much more 
satisfactory, and also in accord with the facts, if we speak of 
the consciousness, the subconsciousness, and the unconscious- 
ness, remembering that they are contemporaneous in time but 
with no “visible’’ connection. Yet, there is always a unit of 
consciousness. It relates to me. J am the one who is conscious. 
It is J who had that experience ten years ago and it is J, the 
same J, that remembers having had it. In spite of all the 
changes of the years, the sleep of nights, the delirium of dis- 
ease, the continual wearing out and rebuilding of my body, 
including the neurons of the brain, J still remain. Thru all 
these years there has been a broadening and deepening of con- 
sciousness which has resulted in establishing an increasing 
number of contacts with men and things. This consciousness 
is mine. It is a unity, yet made up of vast numbers of little 
experiences as the motion picture film which seems to run on 
as one continuous picture is composed of a great number of 
separate pictures. I am not my body. I am more than that. 
I live in my body and use it, but I am superior to the house 
in which I live even tho I have great regard for it and give 
it the best of care. 

There is a quality of “livingness” that indicates where a 
living thing stands in the scale of development. The plant, 
fish, dog, boy, are equally alive, but there is a difference in the 
quality of “livingness’” each possesses. “Livingness’ of an 
individual is the measure of its consciousness and of its intel- 
ligence. In man, because of the delicate machine in his con- 
trol and because of his ability to direct it, his consciousness has 
outrun that of all other creatures and it is still running. The 
continuous enlarging of consciousness is our task. 


CHAPTER II 
SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 


WE live in a world of continuous change. Nothing is at 
rest. The scientist tells us that even the electrons are in con- 
tinuous revolution around the center of their little system. In 
fact, change is the only permanent thing we know. 

With many of these changes we are more or less acquainted 
but many of them most of us know about only by hearsay. 
The physiologist tells us that we have an entirely new body 
every seven years. We hope he tells the truth for some of us 
need it. We know that stains on our hands and cuts on our 
faces soon disappear and there is no good reason why we 
should not believe the physiologist, especially as he has nothing 
to gain by deceiving us. Neither have the other scientists for 
that matter. 

We are concerned in this chapter with the method by which 
we get acquainted with these changes and to discover the man- 
ner in which we attach meanings to these changes, both those 
that are in the world outside of ourselves and those within, 
both of which have a bearing upon our mental development. 

We saw in the last chapter that the body is equipped with 
a nervous mechanism by means of which the activities of the 
body are co-ordinated and by means of which the entire sur- 
face of the body is put into communication with the brain. 
Any disturbance in the way of stimuli at the outer end of the 
sensory nerves is instantly reported to the neuron to which the 
sensory nerve is attached and from there the disturbance may 

30 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 31 


be reported to a muscle or to another neuron and so on until 
the stimulus reaches the brain. 

World of Waves.—Movements of bodies set air in motion 
in the form of waves which go in all directions until they 
strike some object. Then they are deflected and go on until 
the energy is dissipated. We live in a world of waves, some 
of which are continually striking against the surface of the 
body. Some of these waves arouse the nerves to action and 
some do not. Some of the waves are able to secure a response 
when they strike a certain part of the body but not when they 
strike anywhere else. Waves of air strike the auditory nerve 
and secure a response but the same form of wave striking the 
skin of the face or the eye does not arouse nerve action. Of 
course, sometimes as when there is a great explosion enough 
air is set in motion and with such force and rapidity that it 
knocks one down. He hears it too but it is not the sound that 
knocks him down. Of course waves in the air may come with 
force enough to arouse nerve action in the eyes and cause them 
to become red and inflamed but the response is not like the 
response given by the auditory nerve stimulation. 

Differentiation of Functon.—Thru the long ages of hu- 
man evolution a differentiation of function has developed 
among the nerves so that one group attends to one form ot 
stimulation, another to another, etc. These groups are better 
trained than some people are for each attends strictly to its 
own business and leaves the others to do the same. There 
are a number of these groups, five or more of which give us 
information about the external world. In fact, all we know 
of the world around us we know because of the activity of 
these nerves. They are the nerves of the special senses, the 
names of some of which we learned when children in school. 

Sensation.—The capacity for sensation lies at the founda- 
tion of all knowledge. So the condition of the nervous system 


32 PRAGLTICGALLPSY CHOLG Gy 


is an essential factor in determining the kind of report that is 
made to the cortex. Good health is an important factor in 
accurate reporting. Sensation is not a physiological process as 
considered in this connection, but SENSATION is a mental 
interpretation of the cause of the disturbance of the nerves of 
the special senses. 

Sensations are not knowledge any more than cotton is 
cloth. They are the raw material out of which knowledge 
may be built. They are the bricks out of which the house of 
knowledge is to be erected. These stimuli come to us without 
effort and may be recorded in the neurons without awakening 
any mental reaction or not enough to arouse consciousness 
because we have little or no interest in them at the time. 

The clock strikes tho we do not hear it but the vibrations 
reach the ear and are recorded. One may be sound asleep and 
not know when the clock strikes, and yet, make a quick move- 
ment every time it strikes. The recording of stimuli has a 
bearing upon the idea we have of getting used to noises. New 
comers to the city are very much disturbed and quite worn 
out at first by the confusion of noises. After a few weeks 
they forget all about the noises and go about their work or 
study without paying any attention to them. The recording 
of the stimuli has gone on just the same but the persons have 
lost interest in them. 

Many things of which we have never been conscious are 
recorded in the neurons of the brain and many of which we 
have been conscious and have forgotten are still registered 
there ready to be recalled when the proper association occurs. 

While sensations are the raw material out of which ideas 
are made, they of themselves are not of so much importance 
as are the reasons why we attend to them. One sees what his 
friends see. All things are judged in relation to other things. 
We see what our past experience has established an interest 


SHINS EPP ROELP ETV EOPROCESSES Bo 


in. Yet everything we meet has some significance and makes 
some impression upon the senses. 

Using Senses.—One should use his senses in order to 
improve them, for without use they cannot improve any more 
than the muscles can. Training the senses makes them more 
proficient. They respond to a larger number as well as to a 
wider range of impressions. The threshold of the senses can 
be lowered considerably thru use. Thru practice one can hear 
lower sounds than before. When one recalls that all the 
material he has for making ideas come to him thru the senses, 
he will realize that his first task is to increase his stock of sense 
material, or SENSATIONS and that thereby he grows to larger 
mental proportions. 

Perception.—When two or more impressions have been 
registered together in the cortex and have been interpreted as 
sensations there is a tendency, whenever one of thm is aroused 
in consciousness, for the mind to recall the others. When 
these sensations are so related that one of them recalls the 
others of the group into consciousness a PERCEPT is formed. 
PERCEPTION is the mental process by means of which we 
select such sensations as we wish to make the basis of our 
conscious life. Perception enriches a sensation by adding to 
it all of the remembered past. It is the recognition of the 
cause of the sensation. If I am aroused by a stimulus but do 
not know its cause I have a sensation. When I have identified 
the cause I have a percept and have performed the act called 
perception. Perception means that one is conscious of some- 
thing. The value of that thing to his mental life depends upon 
how much or how rich a past he can relate to it. Groups of 
people are often tested by mentioning a word to them and hav- 
ing each one name what came into his mind immediately after 
the word was spoken. Of course everyone will immediately 
associate the idea with some experience of his past. Then have 


34 BRAGTIGADIRSY CHOEOGY. 


each one make a note of the second thing that occurs to him, 
the third, etc., until he has written a list of ten things which 
have occurred to him one after another. In each one’s list you 
will have a pretty good idea of how much his past experience 
can contribute to his present. I have often used the word boat 
as the first word, and have found that those who have always 
lived inland have a very different group of things to recall 
than have those who have lived near the sea, or the Great 
Lakes. The one group of persons cannot add very much to 
the idea from the past while the other group can add many 
things. ' 

I recall a story of a teacher in southern California trying 
to teach Whittier’s “Snow Bound” to a class of children but 
she had a very difficult time to interest them in the poem be- 
cause only one of them had ever seen a flake of snow, and she 
had never seen more than a light flurry of snow herself. 

Think what memories of the past would arise in the mind 
of each when the word home was mentioned to a group of per- 
sons among whom was one living on Fifth Avenue, one from 
a little farm in the middle west, another from Zululand, and 
still another whose parents died before he was two and a half 
years old and who for the next eight years had his only home 
in doorways around Chatham Square and later under the 
western approach to Brooklyn Bridge. 

As someone has said there is no accounting for tastes. Of 
course there isn’t unless you know the experience of the one 
whose taste is under consideration. As an Englishman said, 
“T don’t like spinach and I’m glad I don’t. For if I liked it I 
would eat it and I can’t bear it.” 

Every new sensation should be closely scrutinized in order 
to determine whether or not it can be related to some group al- 
ready in the mind. If it cannot, it is put into a class by itself to 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 35 


be called up for comparison with later stimuli. This sorting 
process goes on continuously. 

No Dealing with Outside Realities.—Perception does 
not deal with outside realities, but with the impressions of out- 
side realities which have reached the cortex thru nerve stimuli. 
Perception interprets these impressions. If we do not receive 
appeals from nature, music, graphic arts, etc., it is because 
our senses thru which we come to appreciate these have for 
some reason not become active. If one’s perception is indis- 
tinct he tries to clarify it by gaining more raw material thru 
the senses. If he cannot see distinctly he goes nearer, or gets 
a pair of tortoise shell glasses. The tortoise shell makes him 
look better and the glasses make him see better. 

What One Can Know.—What one can know depends 
largely upon his environment which reacts upon his nervous 
system and which he will interpret in terms of his past expe- 
rience. The fusion of the new element with those derived from 
past experience constitutes one’s idea of a thing. We tie up our 
ideas in bundles and label them ideas. In perception we relate 
the experience to an object which is the thing that logically 
accounts for the perception. 

Interpreting Impressions.—Whether the external object 
resembles our idea of it is difficult to tell. It depends upon 
whether our senses have reported matters correctly and whether 
or not we have interpreted the reports rightly. The fact that 
perception has its origin indirectly in observational material 
makes it evident that it can give us knowledge of qualities of 
material objects only. It will give us impressions of color, 
form, weight, size, shape, etc. But when we try to interpret 
impressions made upon the optic nerve as sight we must 
remember that it is the image upon the retina that perception 
deals with and not the external object itself. Do we know 
then that the object resembles the impression made upon the 


36 PRACTICAL RE Dy Ori QI) Givi 


retina of the eye? Assuming that it does, are we safe in assum- 
ing that an object resembles any or all of the impressions made 
upon the senses? Do we get a correct idea of the sun by the 
interpretation of the effect which its rays produce upon the 
back of the hand, or by the effect of its rays upon the un- 
covered eye? Is the sun like either, neither, or both? Is 
mustard as it tastes on meat or as it feels when you have 
mustard drafts on your feet, or a plaster of it on your chest? 
Do our senses give us any degree of certainty about the exter- 
nal world? 

Sense Deception.—Before we attempt to answer this 
question, let us consider some instances where we know the 
senses deceive us. That things are not always what they seem 
is acommon saying and “worthy of all acceptation.”’ We have 
often noticed in the ‘“‘movies” that carriage wheels often appear 
to turn backward while the carriage goes forward. We know 
they do not. Little squares of gray paper laid on green paper 
look greenish, but they are not. There are many such peculiar 
appearances which the psychologist calls illusions. 

The fact is taken advantage of by advertising men and 
merchants to quite a large degree. They know that plaids 
make things look larger. So they often put up candy and 
other foods in boxes covered with plaid designs to make you 
think you are getting more for your money. Large fleshy 
women of good taste and a knowledge of style never wear 
plaid dresses or plaid suits. They look large enough already. 
Tall thin women of the same social group never wear stripes, 
because stripes exaggerate height. The advertising man always 
places the “cut” of a cigar vertically on the page because it 
looks longer, but it isn’t. It reminds me of the question, Why 
married men live longer? The answer is, They don’t; it only 
seems longer. I suppose this is one of the illusions of the 
unmarried men. 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 37 


You sit in a train which is standing still. There is another 
train standing still on the next track and opposite you. Pres- 
ently one of them begins without jerk or fuss to move. You 
think your train is moving, and then you begin to have doubts 
about it. You are not sure whether your train is going ahead, 
or the other one backing up, or whether yours is backing up 
and the other going ahead, or whether both are going ahead, 
or both backing up, one faster than the other. You will have 
to look at some other object than the two trains to satisfy 
yourself. All the other passengers are in the same “boat” 
you are. 

You have noticed often that when the rain is coming straight 
down that it strikes the car window as tho it came at an angle 
from the direction the train is moving and the faster the train 
goes the more nearly horizontal the rain comes. Yet, it 
doesn’t, it only seems to. 

I sat at my desk one bright afternoon. There was no sign 
of rain. Suddenly I heard a rumble of thunder. I was sur- 
prised. Feeling that a sudden storm was approaching I went 
to the door to see in what direction it was. As I stepped out 
on the veranda a horse and wagon went past. Then I knew 
what caused the thunder. It was George Miller’s wagon. It 
had just crossed the Cayuga Creek bridge. My senses tried 
to play me a trick, but I caught them at it before they caused 
me much inconvenience. Do we always catch them at it? May 
they not sometimes deceive us so completely that we never 
discover it? If they deceive us at all how can we ever depend 
upon them? 

Trust Your Senses.—We must in spite of all these illu- 
sions trust our senses. They are all we have to trust as a 
_ means of getting information about our world. We may specu- 
late about their unreliability, yet we are forced to trust the 


38 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


evidences of our own senses at least when they agree with 
those of others like ourselves. 

Cause of Illusions.—Let us consider the cause of these 
illusions. It may help us some in restoring confidence in our 
senses. Wheri a stimulus passes thru a nerve to the cortex the 
neurofibrils are thot to extend themselves as a result of the 
impetus. These little extensions are called amceboid processes, 
The neuron which has been aroused into activity by a stimulus 
never quite resumes its former condition. It retains some of 
the effects of the change and later impressions will find the 
path more or less distinctly marked out. There is a tendency 
for the new stimulus to follow out the already tho faintly 
established neuron pattern. Often the stimulus overflows the 
neuron pattern and is dissipated, leaving only very indistinct 
traces in the cortex. However, if two sets of stimuli disturb 
the sensorium at the same time, one, we will say, disturbing 
the optic nerve and the other disturbing the auditory nerve, the 
amoeboid processes may extend far enough to prevent partially 
a general dissipation of the nerve energy by forming a short 
and easy connection between the two sets of neurons which 
have been excited, allowing an increased amount of energy to 
flow thru. A more or less composite, or perhaps we had better 
say compound, pattern is now set up and when later a stimulus 
excites either the optic or the auditory nerve, the entire pattern 
is aroused to activity. In this way the two are so closely asso- 
ciated that when one is present in consciousness the other is 
recalled. 

Common Factors.—As the number of associated groups 
increase there is bound to be one or more factors common to 
several neuron patterns so it is not easy to tell just which one 
will appear in consciousness when stimulation occurs. Think, 
for instance, of the color red. It is associated with several 
patterns or groups of patterns, as red apple, red book, red hat, 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 39 


red cow, the “reds,” etc. Just which of these will appear in 
mind when the percept red has the attention depends upon 
several factors which we shall consider later. If it is associated 
with any of these objects the interpretation will be correct. 
There is nothing wrong in thinking of any of the above named 
objects in connection with the color red, but often we associate 
the sensory element with the wrong group. A loose shingle is 
interpreted as a ghost. In the case of the wagon going over 
the Cayuga Creek bridge the element rumble was put into the 
group of sensations which meant thunder instead of into the 
group which meant wagon-crossing-bridge. The sense stimu- 
lus was true but it was interpreted wrongly. ILLusiIon is 
getting a part into the wrong whole, a sensory element into 
the wrong neuron pattern. In that case the sensory element 
is not what it appears to be. One must always be on guard 
against making the wrong interpretations. 

How is one to determine that his interpretations are not 
illusions? I hear a sound and think it is a bass drum. IJ am 
trying to interpret it. My companion hears the same sound. 
He says it is a big gun. When I associate the sound with a 
bass drum it seemed about a block away, but when I think of 
it as a big gun, I think of it as fifteen or twenty miles away. 
I am checking up my interpretation with that of my companion 
and we do not agree. We refer the matter to the first man 
we meet and he agrees with my companion. In the meantime 
we have walked to about the place where I thot the bass drum 
would be if my interpretation was correct but we neither see 
nor hear any signs of the drum. Then I come to the conclu- 
sion that my companion was right in his view of the matter. 
We decide it was the big gun and not the big drum which we 
heard. Our interpretation determined the object to which we 
referred our impressions and on comparing experiences we 
came to an agreement. 


40 PRACTICAL" PSY CHOLOGY: 


Objective and Subjective——Only those interpretations 
which may become common property are called objective. 
Those which cannot become common are called subjective. To 
every form of experience there is a proper test and we should 
seek to find it and apply it to our experience. For the great 
majority of us there is an approximation toward agreement. 
The validity of one’s perception rests on the fact that his 
agrees with that of others. If it does not agree he ought to 
check his interpretation very carefully. It may be that one of 
the senses is defective. He may be color blind, does not hear 
correctly, or he may have an astigmatism which prevents him 
from having transmitted to the cortex the same stimuli that 
others have. 

What Red Means.—Of course you cannot know what I 
mean when I speak of red. All you know is that we call the 
same thing red but as to just what it means to me you cannot 
know because you cannot receive the same waves that I have 
received. You cannot know how long a yard stick is to me. 
Its length to you depends upon the convexity of the lenses in 
your eyes. If the yard stick looks twice as long to you as it 
does to me everything else will look twice as large and you and 
I would never know the difference. We judge everything by 
everything else. My idea of red is gained from what every- 
one else calls red. We judge motion by comparing the movy- 
ing object with another that is not moving, but when we try 
to judge motion or direction in the large it is difficult because 
we have nothing to check with. It is pretty difficult to tell the 
exact direction and speed a man is traveling who is walking 
east on a train going west at sixty miles an hour while the 
earth is turning east on its axis at the rate of 1000 miles an 
hour, and at the same time moving in its orbit around the sun 
at the rate of 70,000 miles an hour while the whole solar sys- 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 4I 


tem is moving off thru space toward the constellation 
Hercules. 

Misunderstandings.—Misunderstandings and misinterpre- 
tations arise because we do not check far enough back in our 
experiences. We too often take coincidents for causes just 
as we take one element of a neuron pattern for the whole pat- 
tern. The Egyptians observed that when Sirius, the Dog Star, 
appeared on the eastern horizon with the rising sun the Nile 
river began its overflow. They assumed that the star was 
the cause of the overflow. The translators of the Bible in 
dealing with the story of Elijah made the selection say that 
the ravens fed Elijah. Hebrew scholars tell us that the con- 
sonants, which were the only letters written in the old Hebrew, 
are the same in the words ravens and Arabians and that the 
translators put the part, the consonants, into the wrong whole 
and interpreted it as ravens when they should have put the 
element into the right whole and interpreted is as Arabians, 
This may not be called an illusion but the mental process is 
the same. It is like trying to fill in the missing letters in forms 
like l-nd-n. It may be London, or Linden or Landon. One’s 
past experience and his prejudices play a large part in deter- 
mining what he supplies. The Englishman would suggest 
London, the German Linden; and someone else the last. 

We must not get the idea that man is passive amid all these 
impressions, that he stands around waiting for stimuli to 
arouse him. He undergoes the effects of his own behavior. 
He is active all the time. As an organism he is reacting all the 
time to his environment trying to bring about an adjustment 
of himself to it and of it to himself. His attempts at adjust- 
ment result in action which results in knowledge. He acts, 
then reflects, then acts again, using the experience to con- 
struct new and better experiences. That is, each experience 


42 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


becomes the raw material out of which he builds a more 
intelligent, because better understood, experience. 

Special Senses.—The only approach one has to the ex- 
ternal world is thru the nerves of the special senses. It is out 
of the material reported to the brain thru these senses that we 
build our world. Each makes his own world. If he is blind, 
he builds a world without color, light, and shade. If he is 
deaf, he builds it without music, or the sound of pleasant 
voices. If he has no sense of feeling, he builds without ideas 
of rough and smooth. 

To seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, many 
add muscular sense and the sense of heat and cold, etc. The 
first five are called the primary senses and the others the sec- 
ondary. We may for convenience divide the primary senses 
into two groups, one giving us knowledge of the physical quali- 
ties of objects. These are seeing, hearing, and touching. 
The other group gives us knowledge of the chemical qualities 
of objects. These are tasting and smelling. 

Sensory Qualities——Let us turn our attention to the 
material furnished us by the nerves of the special senses and 
try to understand a little more fully this raw material. 

The special senses developed in animal life as a means of 
protection and preservation. Self-preservation depends upon 
food and protection from enemies, Smell and taste served the 
immediate purpose of determining whether or not an article 
was fit for food. Seeing helped to discover food and enemies 
at a distance. Hearing also served a similar purpose. The 
lion’s roar heard by his prey is a protection to the prey, and the 
hyena that follows the lion to feed upon the bones that fall 
from his table and whose sense of approaching danger is much 
keener than that of the lion warns the lion against his enemies. 
So thru the ages by constant use the senses have been devel- 
oped. They have not reached so high a state of development 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 43 


in man as they have in some of the lower animals. Man cannot 
smell as the dog, see as the hawk, nor hear as the deer, but he 
knows a great deal more because of what he does smell, see, 
and hear. 

Touching.—Touching, or feeling, as it is often called gives 
us impressions which we interpret as pressure. The range of 
this sense is very limited in extent as we must get within arm’s 
length of the object in order to touch it at all. We get other 
impressions which we interpret as rough and smooth, giving 
us some idea of surfaces and from the surface we are often 
able to judge of the material. The sense of touching, or feel- 
ing, gives us ideas of pain as when there is an injury to the 
body from some outside agency. It also gives us an idea of 
pain when there is some disturbance of the internal machinery 
as in dyspepsia or gout. 

Practically all stimuli if increased in intensity sufficiently 
cause pain. Very bright sunlight causes pain in the eyes and 
loud noises cause headache. Suddenness of stimulation will 
cause pain. If one puts his hand quickly into ice water, he will 
feel pain, or if he puts it quickly into hot water, pain will 
result. He may put his hand into warm water and gradually 
increase the temperature until the water is hot and not feel pain. 
The slowness seems to give time for adaptation. On the other 
hand, slow pressure causes pain while a quick cut with a knife, 
or a quick pull on an adhesive plaster, or a bullet wound causes 
no immediate pain. The explanation is the same as was the 
one which led your friends in your childhood days, when one 
of your first set of teeth became loose, to tell you to tie a 
string around the tooth and tie the other end to the door knob 
and have someone suddenly open the door. The tooth was out 
“before you knew it.” 

The relation between pain and emotions is a close one. 
One may mentally exaggerate pain until it becomes almost 


44. PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


unbearable. On the other hand if strong emotion is aroused 
one may receive a severe injury and not know that he has been 
hurt. It does not hurt if he does not feel it, and under the 
strong emotion he does not feel it. 

The sense of cold and heat is located in certain parts of the 
body and must be considered in this connection, The entire 
surface of the body is not covered with these nerves. There 
are places not sensitive to these stimuli. Some are sensitive to 
heat, others to cold. Our interpretations of these stimuli as of 
most of the others are relative, or comparative. One coming in 
out of doors on a very cold day when his fingers “just tingle’ 
with the cold, and putting his hands into water cannot guess 
the temperature of the water within a wide margin. Having 
taken his hand out of water the temperature of which is 40 
degrees will make water at 60 degrees feel very warm. The 
laundress holds the iron close to her cheek to test its tempera- 
ture. Her cheek is much more sensitive to heat than it 1s to 
feeling. I suppose that is why we say certain persons have 
“lots of cheek.” They have little or no feeling for the feel- 
ings of others. Sometimes this particular quality is called 
“call” but it is not divided into three parts. 

The muscular sense is more or less closely related to touch- 
ing. The sensory nerves originate, or some of them do, in the 
muscles as well as in the skin. These report impressions which 
we translate into ideas of weight and tension. 

Ordinarily we think of the sense of touching as having to 
do with feeling with the hands and fingers. How accurately 
can you use your hands and fingers? When I was a boy on 
the farm we used to sow clover and timothy seeds mixed 
together and sow them broadcast. My father taught us to sow 
a strip eight feet wide and to determine the right amount of 
seed by what we could pick out of the measure with the tips of 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 45 


two fingers and the thumb, and to do it so accurately that we 
would not vary a quart in the amount to be sowed on an acre. 

To discover how accurately you can feel take a package of 
not less than twenty-five cards of the thickness of visiting, or 
calling cards. Hold them in the left hand with the end of the 
pack up. Close your eyes and lightly draw the thumb of the 
right hand over the top of the pack and each time remove the 
three righthand cards and lay them by themselves. When you 
have removed them all from the left hand count the packs and 
see how many have three cards each. If you do not have cards 
handy, use a package of envelopes. Repeat the operation three 
times and compare the results. You should have six correct 
the last time and five the first, if your sense of feeling is good. 
If excellent, you should have seven correct the last time. By 
practice you will find that your sense of feeling will improve. 
The same thing will be true in regard to testing rough and 
smooth surfaces. Here, as in other lines, practice makes per- 
fect. It all depends upon what you practice. 

Seeing.—The sense of vision is stimulated by vibrations 
in the ether which pass thru the lens of the eye and are brought 
to a focus on the retina where the image appears bottom side 
up. The optic nerves from the retina pass to the sight center 
of the brain, some of the fibers passing over to the other side 
of the brain so that both sides of the brain help in interpreting 
the image of each eye. There are two images to each object. 
When the eyes do not focus alike there is a blurred, or confused 
interpretation. 

The waves come thru space in straight lines and from short 
or long distances. Because of this fact we infer distance by 
sense of sight, and size from distance and color, or rather by 
brightness. In reality sight cannot enable us to judge distance. 
It can only give us information about brightness and colors, 
but by experience we have learned that a difference in degree 


46 PRACTICAL SY Gi iG 


of brightness is apt to mean far away or near to. We are able 
to judge distance too by means of muscular tension. Hold an 
object at arm’s length and focus both eyes upon it and bring it 
closer, keeping the eyes fixed upon it. You will soon feel the 
tension of the muscles. Move it away and they relax. The 
degree of tension or pull gives us a clue to the distance. 

The impressions gained from the sense of sight are usually 
classed as achromatic, or brightness, and chromatic, or color. 
The achromatic is divided into blacks, whites, and grays. The 
chromatic is divided into the color series composed of red, 
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The chromatic 
is again divided into actinic and non-actinic according to the 
length of the waves. The actinic rays produce chemical effects, 
and it is now pretty well established that they are what makes 
it impossible for blondes to thrive in the tropics. The pigment 
in the skin of the brunet protects him from the actinic rays. 
The actinic rays are at the upper end of the color scale and are 
green, blue, indigo, and violet and the ultra-violet. 

Some persons are born without color sense. They see the 
world in grays. Such persons are said to be color blind. Some 
are only partially color blind, being blind to red. Others are 
blind to green. These persons are always handicapped so far 
as the world of color is concerned, and they must find success 
in some activity into which a knowledge of color does not enter. 
One who is blind to red and green or to either one cannot be 
trusted to run trains on the railroads no matter how well 
equipped he may be in regard to every other requirement. He 
would run past signals. He would be of less value in that posi- 
tion than was the Irish stowaway. He was brought on board 
and the captain placed him at the bow with strict orders to 
report anything he saw. After a couple of hours, he called out, 
“Captain, I see a red and a green light. I think we’re coming 
to a drug store.” 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 47 


The sense of color is a rather recent acquirement in the his- 
tory of the race. Pictet says there were no names in Indo- 
European languages indicating color. Max Mueller says there 
is no Sanskrit root for color. Geiger tells us that the primitive 
Aryans were conscious of only one color. In the oldest literary 
composition only red and black are indicated. The Rig Veda 
mentions red, black, and yellow. Later there is mention of 
white, then still later green. Etymology shows that blue was 
still unknown three thousand years ago. It is a long step from 
the ancient Aryans who recognized only one color to the mod- 
ern color expert who knows several tints and several shades of 
each color of the scale, and in addition knows them when 
applied to almost any kind of material. 

Some persons are able to see at greater distances than 
others, and are said to be farsighted. Others are nearsighted. 
Occasionally one is met who cannot see after dark as the albino 
cannot see well in the daylight. The cause of the inability to 
see after dark is probably due to the lack of rods in the retina 
of the eyes. Birds like the owl that see well only at night have 
only rods which are receptors for whites, grays, and blacks in 
the retina of the eyes. Those that see well only in the day like 
hens have cones which are receptors for the colors of the spec- 
trum in the retina and no rods. The normal visioned person 
has both rods and cones. 

Do you know whether or not your vision is normal? Have 
you had your eyes examined so you know just what they can 
do and how well they can do it? Does your work make any 
demands upon your eyes that they cannot stand for years? If 
so you had better change. 

We sometimes wonder why so many persons have difficulty 
with their eyes. But when we remember that in former gen- 
erations very little reading was done and very little work of 
any kind that required close eye application and that what was 


48 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


done was all done by daylight as there was no artificial light 
that one could work by, and then recall that with all the books 
to be read and close work to be done, much of it by artificial 
light that makes it possible, even if unwise, for one to use his 
eyes for twelve, fifteen, and often eighteen hours out of twenty- 
four, it is no wonder that we are finding many weaknesses of 
the eyes that former generations never dreamed of. 

Hearing.—The last of the senses that give us information 
about the physical qualities of matter is the sense of hearing. 
Waves of air strike the inner ear and stimulate the auditory 
nerves which carry the impression to the neurons of the cortex 
after which the mind interprets them as sound. Ears differ 
much in their capacity to receive sensations, as minds do in 
their ability to interpret them. 

Until the vibrations of the air reach 16 per second we can- 
not hear and some persons cannot hear as low as that. Most 
persons hear vibrations ranging from 16 to 50,000 a second. 
The human voice has a range from about 87 to 768 per second 
altho some singers have a much wider range. It is said that 
Christine Nilsson’s voice reached 1361 vibrations. You see the 
range of the ear is far beyond the range of the voice. This 
enables us to appreciate musical instruments that range very 
high as well as those that have a very low range. 

Sound vibrations are usually divided into two classes, noise 
and tone. Noise results from rough, interrupted vibrations. 
Tone results from smooth, uninterrupted vibrations. Tones 
are classified according to pitch, intensity, and timbre. 

Pitch depends upon the number or frequency of vibrations. 
Intensity depends upon the amplitude of the vibrations. 
Timbre, or quality depends upon the material which is caused 
to vibrate. We readily recognize the quality of the sound of the 
piano, flute, cannon, cricket, and trombone as they each produce 
a different form of vibration than any of the others. Scientists 


SENSH-PERGCEPTIV EE PROCESSES 49 


tell us that the quality is determined by the number and the 
intensity of the overtones, or harmonics, 

There is a rhythmical sequence of related tones which we 
speak of as melody, and another relationship between two or 
more tones sounding together which we call harmony. The 
ability to enjoy the relationship of tones varies to a remarkable 
degree. One person likes only music with a tune to it. He 
has no use for highfaluting music, and another thoroly enjoys 
the closest harmony and the heaviest operas. 

It is not unusual to find at an orchestra concert one who 
just hears the music, another who enjoys the rhythm and swing 
of all the parts, while another enters heart and soul into the 
interpretation of the themes, and finds himself responding to 
every change presented by the musicians. This is not so 
strange when we recall that music is one of the latest acquire- 
ments of the race, that only 50 per cent of us have any musical 
sense at all, and that only three or four in ten thousand have a 
real musical sense. We may all receive the same impressions 
from the waves of sound but most of us are unable to make 
any intelligent interpretation of them. Yet the best human ear 
can detect ten thousand steps in pitch. 

While the musical sense is one of the latest acquirements of 
the race, the sense of hearing is one of the oldest and most 
firmly fixed. One’s ability to understand his world and to 
adjust himself to it depends in a large degree upon his hearing. 
If he does not hear well, or at all, he is badly handicapped. He 
will be shut out of many lines of activity where otherwise he 
might find splendid opportunity for the development of his 
other powers. Each one of us should make the necessary 
effort to know just what degree of efficiency we may hope to 
attain thru the use of each of the senses and how we may 
measure up to the best of our capability. 


50 PRAGCTICAT YRS Y CEOD OGY. 


Smell.—The sense of smell and the sense of taste give us 
information about the chemical qualities of matter. One may 
look upon many things. He may listen to many things, but is 
seldom killed by what he sees or by what he hears, but unless 
one acts quickly he may be killed by what he tastes or by what 
he smells. Smell and taste are the sentinels which guard the 
gateway to the lungs and to the stomach. One cannot live in 
a room filled with poisoned gas, and his nose lets him know 
when it is time to move. 

Under ordinary circumstances we readily adapt ourselves 
to odors and fail to recognize their presence. The sense of 
smell rests in the olfactory nerves, the ciliated cells of which 
are imbedded in the mucous membrane of the nose. The 
intensity of an odor depends upon the number of particles 
emitted by the object. The sense of smell rivals the spectro- 
scope in detection of minute particles of matter. A good nose 
can detect 1/2,000,000 of a milligram of musk and 1/2,000,- 
000,000 of a milligram of mercaptan, one of the vilest smelling 
things man has made. Smell is about 24,000 times as sensitive 
as taste and has a great influence upon the emotions. 


Smells are surer than sounds or sights 
To make your heart-strings crack. 
—KIPLING. 


The odor of delicious food tends to arouse emotional energy 
to a high pitch. We do not wonder that Esau was so stirred 
by the odor of the mess of pottage that he was willing to trade 
almost anything for it. His emotions were aroused to a pitch 
beyond his control. 

Taste.—The sense of taste is in the gustatory nerves. The 
taste buds are connected with the receiving nerves along the 
sides of the ridges of the tongue. They are stimulated by 
substances in solution only. 

There are four recognized tastes, sour, soapy, bitter, and 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE. PROCESSES 51 


sweet. The acid, or sour, taste is the perception of the hydro- 
gen atoms charged with positive electricity. It is easily recog- 
nized by anyone who has tasted the leaves of the sorrel plant. 
The alkaline, or soapy taste is the recognition of the hydroxyl 
element charged with negative electricity. The other two are 
well known to all of us by their names and by experience. We 
all know what bitter means even tho we may have trouble to 
define it, so also with sweet. 

Flavor or aroma is a sort of compound of taste and smell. 
Coffee does not taste nearly so good if you hold your nose 
while you drink it. That is one reason why cold coffee does 
not taste so good as hot. We cannot smell the cold coffee as 
we can the hot. It is a combination of taste, smell, and touch 
that makes ice cream so pleasant. Think of the flavors we pay 
good money for when we buy ice cream flavored with choco- 
late, vanilla, sarsaparilla, etc. Millions of dollars’ worth of 
these perfumes and flavors are manufactured every year and 
sold at a profit. The odoriferous oil in violet perfumery costs 
about $10,000 a pound yet there is a ready market for it and 
for almost anything else that pleases the sense of taste and 
smell. 

Sense Limits.—There are limits to the power of the 
senses to report impressions. As they do not report the effect 
of waves of air below 16a second, they do not report the effect 
of waves above 50,000. When waves reach 18 million a second 
the reporting begins again but instead of reporting as sound 
the report is of heat. Then there is a wide range from which 
no impressions are recorded. When the waves reach 395 bil- 
lion a second we begin to receive reports of light and color. 
There is a continuous reporting until the number of waves 
reaches 757 billion a second which we interpret as the violet 
ray. Beyond this are the ultra-violet waves which the eye 


52 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


cannot interpret directly, but which are known by their effects, 
and beyond these the X, alpha, beta, and gamma rays. 

Our Stock of Percepts.—There must be a constant receipt 
of new perceptive material if one’s mental growth is to be con- 
tinued. One cannot make bricks without straw, neither can he 
build ideas without perceptive material. The avenues of ap- 
proach to the mind must not only be kept open but they must 
be used. There are two essentials in the perceptive process that 
should be kept constantly in mind. They are accuracy and 
speed. ' | 

The first essential is accuracy. Inaccurate perceptions are 
a handicap but accurate ones are an advantage. Careful ob- 
servation is the great essential. See and see correctly. One 
of the best ways to test your powers of observation is to 
attempt to make a sketch of what you have seen. Agassiz said, 
“A pencil is the best of eyes.” When one attempts to draw 
he realizes how he has overlooked the details of the thing 
observed. 

Every one of us can increase greatly his ability to see 
things. Three men looked at something lying on a table. One 
reported that there was nothing there except a pen or pencil. 
The second reported that there was a fountain pen. The third 
reported that there was a Waterman fountain pen with a clip 
cap on it. The difference in the ability to see could hardly be 
better illustrated. 

Recently in a meeting of a men’s club in New York some 
simple observational tests were given. One of the number was 
called upon to read a short selection. When he had retired 
from the stage the men were asked to answer several questions 
about him, some of which were as follows: 


What is the color of the reader’s suit? 
Is his collar high or low? 

Is he tall or short? 

Is he stout or slim? 


ROH & 


SENSE-PERCEPTIVE PROCESSES 53 


Is he blonde or brunet? 

Are his shoes black or tan? 

Is his hair parted in the middle? 

Does he wear a bow tie or a four-in-hand? 


CONT QAUt 


More than half of the men present gave incorrect answers 
to over half the questions. Inaccuracy of observation was 
clearly manifest. If the promotion of those men depended 
upon what they could see, they would have been disappointed. 

The speed of perception is almost as essential as the 
accuracy. The world wants men who can do things accurately 
but it wants them done speedily. “Time is money” is what we 
hear on every hand. It is not any wonder that we live in pov- 
erty when we remember how much time we waste. We must 
learn to see and see now. It is surprising to discover the speed 
in observing we can attain thru practice. We can learn to look 
as tho we were never to get another chance. We can fix as in 
a photograph the entire scene if we will and then recall it at 
leisure. 

The growth of the mind depends upon the constant recep- 
tion of new sense-perception material. We cannot emphasize 
this too much. The mental life of tomorrow depends upon the 
material you have selected today. Give thot to the selection 
today. A growing self-consciousness should be your constant 
aim. Making of yourself a successful salesman, a successful 
lawyer, a successful preacher may be important, but vastly 
more important is making of yourself a man. After that one 
can make many things of himself. Before that he can make 
nothing but failure. 

One must continue to come into contact with the universe 
at an increasing number of points and this must be done thru 
the use of the senses. The world is not changing very much 
but man is changing rapidly. Think of what iron ore meant to 
primitive man and what it means today. Where early man 
saw simple iron, the chemist of today sees steel in all its forms 


54 BRAGTIC ADNER SY GEiOHsGyay, 


and sees new possibilities thru alloys that the man of even a 
generation ago never imagined. What has caused all this 
change? Iron has remained the same, but man has grown. 
An ever increasing self-consciousness has made this advance 
possible. You cannot extend your viewpoint one iota without 
extending yourself. An enlarging viewpoint means an en- 
larging life. Observe, read, study, attend lectures, get more 
facts, establish new viewpoints. The richness of your life is 
within you. 


We live in deeds not.years, in thoughts not breaths, 
In feelings not in figures on a dial.—Ferstus. 


_ Are your surroundings discouraging? Do you feel that if 
you were in another’s place success would be easy? There is 
an external environment that we cannot change. One cannot 
change his race. He cannot change the climatic conditions of 
his part of the world, but these are minor things. One’s real 
environment is within himself. The factors of mental growth, 
of success, or failure are yours. Perception is a condition of 
the mind. You are responsible for your state of mind. You 
make your own world, and you choose the material out of 
which you build it. Have you chosen wisely? Well and good. 
Have you chosen unwisely? Then choose again. No one has 
failed so long as he can begin again. Every morning brings a 
new opportunity. 


They do me wrong who say I come no more 
When once I knock and fail to find you ins 
For every day I stand outside your door 
And bid you wake, and rise to fight and win. 
Wail not for precious chances passed away, 
Weep not for golden ages on the wane! 
Each night I burn the records of the day— 
At sunrise every soul is born again! 
—MALONE. 


CHAPTER III 
CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 


AS we have already noted, the human individual is a con- 
tinuous unfolding from the germ cell to adulthood. There is 
much modification but no new factors appear. The behavior 
of the various groups of cells and of the different organs of the 
body is largely the result of what we have called “Cellular 
intelligence.” It is probably not so much the result of reasoned 
processes as we used to think, nor is it the result of chance. 
Behavior is more the result of, or rather response to, impulses 
and desires. These arise because of certain stimuli which 
affect the nervous system and are interpreted as sensations and 
perceptions giving us information about the qualities of mate- 
rial objects, such as color, form, weight, size, etc. Sense 
training, therefore, is the logical beginning of all education, 
and its continuance is essential to anything like a complete and 
harmonious development of the mind. Securing the supply of 
sense-percepts depends upon us. 

What have you done since studying the second chapter to 
improve your sense-perceptive material? Remember that 
knowing how to improve does not mean improvement. Im- 
provement comes thru knowing and then doing. Knowledge is 
not power; it is a means to power. One must use the means. 
You may come to know thru these chapters all of the funda- 
mental principles of mental operation and how these principles 
may be applied, but unless you apply them, you will not increase 
your ability. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but 
in ourselves that we are underlings.” 

55 


56 PRACTICAL RS Gn OMO Gy 


Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are going 
forward by leaps and bounds. Your mental growth is slow 
just as your physical growth is. You have attained your 
present weight by taking food a mouthful at a time, digesting 
it, assimilating it. Your mental growth proceeds in the same 
way, an observation here, a reflection there, but never without 
effort, and at the best a consciously directed effort. 

Relation of Percepts to Concepts.—We begin life with- 
out any neuron patterns. As soon as consciousness appears, 
we begin to receive impressions from the outer world. These 
sensations are indefinite, unclassified, undifferentiated. Very 
gradually the mind begins to localize the source of these im- 
pressions as here, there, elsewhere. The child finds the world, 
in the words of William James, “a big blooming confusion” 
and proceeds very slowly to relate it to himself. His first 
conclusion seems to be that it is all one. He does not at first 
distinguish between himself and things around him, but as 
time goes on and his experience broadens a bit, he learns that 
the teddy bear and his blocks are not a part of himself. He 
has then made a distinction between self and not-self. He is 
all the while receiving impressions thru the senses and inter- 
preting and relating or referring them to definite sources. 
These interpretations, as we have already noted, are the results 
of perception and are called percepts. 

Just as sensations furnish the raw material out of which 
percepts are made, so percepts are the raw material out of 
which concepts are made. A percept is the result of immediate 
experience, but a concept is not such a result. A concept is 
mediated, or in other words, is arrived at thru something else. 
It is a new meaning, or an old meaning seen in a new way 
or under different circumstances. 

Concepts.—A percept is an idea of a particular thing or 
quality; a concept is an idea of a general group or class of 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 57 


things. One may have a percept, let us say, of a chair, a par- 
ticular chair which he sees or has seen. He may have also a 
concept of a chair, not any particular chair, but an idea that 
includes all chairs. This idea he arrives at by considering not 
a particular chair only but by observing many chairs. That is, 
he arrives at the concept chair by means of the percepts of 
many chairs. So we say the percept is the result of immediate 
experience while the concept is mediated thru, or by means of, 
something else. 

A percept may be a horse. The concept is horse, the class 
which includes any and all horses. A percept may be Woodrow 
Wilson. The concept would be man, the class which includes 
any and all members of the human race. A percept may be a 
concrete object or a proper noun. The concept would be an 
abstract quality or a common noun. As you see, dog does not 
mean the same as this dog. This dog may have short legs, long 
hair, long body, short nose, but dog is the name of all dogs 
everywhere. Concepts are ideas of classes of actions and of 
things. Concepts must contain all the essential elements of 
the group and none of the incidental elements. Body is an 
essential element in a dog, but long body is not. Hence, long 
is incidental and cannot appear in the concept dog. If by any 
chance one’s notion of dog includes the element long body, it 
will be evident that he has not seen all kinds of dogs. 

Conception.—Conception is that act of the mind thru 
which it forms an idea of a class. A class is a group of indi- 
viduals which resemble each other in some particulars. We 
are not able to form a mental picture of a class as we are of an 
individual. Usually when the word dog is mentioned we think 
of some particular dog but we feel at the same time that the 
image of any other dog would satisfy us just as well. A 
-mental image always represents qualities and particulars of an 
individual object. Conception can embody only those qualities 


58 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


common to the entire class. If the concept is of apples, it must 
not contain the percept of a spot or wormhole. Yet the con- 
cept must always be interpreted in terms of certain individuals 
of the group. The concept can mean nothing apart from the 
individuals from which it took its rise. One’s concept of dog 
can mean nothing apart from the individual dogs he has seen. 
When the word apple is mentioned, we find our minds running 
to the percept red, then quickly, to green, yellow, etc., to sweet, 
sour, to dry, juicy, and finally coming to rest, let us say, with 
the idea of the early harvest apples that we liked so well in our 
younger days and which we regard as our ideal of what an 
apple ought to be. 

Formation of Concepts.—We have seen what conception 
is and what concepts are. Let us consider now how they are 
formed. We cannot remember how we first formed concepts, 
but we may be able to analyze the process clearly enough to 
answer our purpose. 

The little child when it first begins to talk calls all men 
“daddy.” He does it because he sees no difference between his 
daddy and the others to whom he applies the name. He has 
only very indefinite ideas of particular men and he has just as 
indefinite ideas as to the class of men. This is due to the fact 
that the mind of the child as well as that of the adult perceives 
likenesses before it does differences. We recognize this in the 
somewhat common expression, “All coons look alike to me.” 
To the average American the appearance of Japanese, Chinese, 
and Koreans is quite the same. I happened to be in Germany 
at the outbreak of the Great War and with quite a group of 
other Americans suffered some inconvenience and annoyance 
by the German military and citzenry because they thot we were 
English. They were not able to distinguish the differences in 
looks and speech between the American whom at that time 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 59 


they regarded with some little respect and the Englishman for 
whom they had less. 

In my high school teaching I had twin sisters who were as 
like as “two peas in a pod” at least so they appeared to me 
when they first entered the school. For some weeks I was con- 
tinually confused as to which I was talking with and some of 
the teachers were never able to identify accurately either of 
them. However, after several weeks I began to notice differ- 
ences in them and as I became better acquainted with them I 
noticed still other points of dissimilarity until I wondered how 
I could ever have confused them. The point is that I could not 
distinguish them apart until I did discover the differences. 

I see a man coming down the road. I am sure it is Jim 
Smith. A few minutes later I conclude that it is either Jim or 
his father. I can tell by the walk. When he gets near enough 
for me to note that it is the younger man, then and only then, 
am I certain that it is Jim. 

We cannot perceive individuals without perceiving differ- 
ences. The child will be able to distinguish his father from 
other men when he learns to note the difference in clothing, 
beard, voice, etc. To the child geese and swans look alike and 
if he is familiar with geese and not with ducks, he will on first 
meeting ducks be quite apt to call them little geese. 

In much the same way he makes the distinction between 
self and not-self, putting the teddy bear and the kitten into 
the not-self group. As his experience broadens he finds that 
he may put them both into the basket and teddy bear will 
stay there but often the kitten will not and then he has noted 
other differences and he subdivides the not-self group into 
living and non-living. Of course, he does not use these terms. 

I was interested last summer in noting how a little niece 
of mine was making these differentiations or rather had made 
them. She put the teddy bear and the kitten both into the 


60 PRAGTICA BH SRS Y CHOEOGY 


basket and then for some reason ran into another room return- 
ing in a minute or so. While she was gone the kitten jumped 
out of the basket and ran away. When the little girl returned 
she looked up at me and pointing to the basket said, “Kitty 
gone,’ and said it with an air which indicated that she was not 
a bit surprised, that that was about what one would expect of 
a kitten anyway. She then ran out to get the kitten. While 
she was gone I took the teddy bear out of the basket and 
placed it where she could not readily see it. When she returned 
to the basket and found it.empty she was in a quandary and 
looking up at me with wide open eyes and pointing at the 
basket said, “teddy gone.” The expression on her face and 
the tone of her voice indicated that while she was not surprised 
to find the kitten gone she was very much perplexed to find 
the teddy bear gone. He had never done that before. She 
had already made the classification of living and non-living. 

Later the child makes distinctions among things that are 
alive and classifies them as plants and animals. Then plants 
are divided into those that bear flowers, called phanerogams, 
and those that do not, called cryptogams. The flowering plants 
are divided into two groups, those having the seed covered, 
called angiosperms, and those that have not, called gymno- 
sperms. ‘This process is a continuous differentiation among 
the individuals of a larger group. The result may be indicated 
as shown on page 61. 

In the same way differentiation is carried on among non- 
living things and the sciences of physics, chemistry, physiog- 
raphy, meteorology, etc., result. The subdivisions of the ani- 
mal group are arrived at in the same way. | 

The child and even the adult may not form very clear con- 
cepts at any point of the way. At best there will always be a 
rather indistinct boundary between groups, a sort of twilight 
area as tho one could not see distinctly. For instance, it is not 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 61 


Child 
| 
Self ae 
ug. ult 
igs Not-living 
| | 
Plants Animals 
Phanerogams Cryptogams 
(flowering ) (not-flowering) 
Angiosperms Gymnosperms 
(covered seeds) {naked seeds) 


easy to know the concept life or alive. It is not easy to tell 
whether or not a certain object is alive. Just so it is difficult to 
distinguish between plants and animals. It seems easy because 
we deal with things far from the margin of the group like 
horse, the animal, and horse-chestnut, the plant, but when we 
deal with the microscopic single-celled object it is difficult to 
say whether it is plant or animal. 

Analysis and Synthesis.—There are two processes em- 
ployed by the mind in dealing with objects of experience. One 
is the process of separating an object into its parts. The other 
process is the combining of the parts into a whole. The first 
is called analysis; the second is called synthesis. Both pro- 
cesses must be employed in order to give one a fairly good 
check on the accuracy of his concepts. 

As we know, sense-percepts lead to a knowledge of indi- 
vidual concepts which may be joined to form larger groups, 
and these may be joined to form still larger ones. The satisfac- 
tion that comes to a child when he recognizes for the first time 
_ that plants and animals are alike in that they both have life, 
that gases and liquids are comprised in fluids, and so on, is like 


62 PRACTICAL PSY CHOLOGY 


that of the adult who has discovered likenesses where he thot 
only differences existed. I suppose it is the same feeling that 
Newton experienced when he realized that there was a com- 
mon element in the falling apple and in the moon in that both 
were compelled to obey what we call gravitation. 

The synthetic process may be indicated as follows: 


Plants Animals 


| 
Living things 


Gases Liquids 
| | 
Fluids 
eae apple Moon 
ae 
Gravitation 
Cat ‘ Dog 
ASA Seiki Ae A J 
| 
Mammal 
Vertebrate 
Animal 


Living thing 
Material substance 


All concepts are formed by means of these two processes. 
The concept is never definite until both processes have been 
followed out. 

The chemist thinks of rubber and wonders what it is com- 
posed of. He goes into his laboratory and analyzes it and 
learns what all the parts, or elements, are. Then he goes out 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 63 


and seeks for these elements here, there, anywhere, and having 
found them puts them together in the right proportions and 
makes rubber, which because of the method followed is called 
synthetic rubber. 

Children in school are taught to analyze sentences in the 
language class, problems in the arithmetic class, etc. This is 
for the purpose of having the members of the class get a clear 
idea of what the essential parts of a sentence are, or to have 
them get such a clear idea of a problem in arithmetic that they 
see what parts are given and what ones are to be found. By 
one’s ability to analyze a problem is determined his place and 
his rating in the class. 

Then, again, the class is given certain words to be used in 
sentences. Then the synthetic process is brought into play. 
If one can analyze a sentence correctly and can build a correct 
sentence having certain words and conditions given, his concept 
of sentence will be fairly accurate. 

These two methods, or processes, are carried on extensively 
in every business and profession. Every concept employed in 
banking, railroading, preaching, manufacturing, merchandising, 
etc., is arrived at in the same way, and other things being equal 
the person with the most concepts is the best equipped for 
SUCCESS. 

Steps in Concept Formation.—There are definite steps 
thru which the mind passes in arriving at a concept. It will 
be well for us to look carefully at them. That is, we will 
analyze the process into its parts. 

The steps are as follows: 

1. Observation. One must observe many objects carefully 
and form images of them. This requires time and is a slow 
_ process if well done. 

2. Comparison. One must see clearly the agreements and 


64. PRACTICAL oY GHOLROGY 


the disagreements, the likenesses and the differences among the 
different objects seen. 

3. Abstraction. One must think only of the common, or 
essential qualities, the likenesses, and then reject, or overlook, 
the non-essentials. He must abstract, take away from all the 
elements, only the common ones. 

4. Generalization. One must then put all the objects hav- 
ing like or common qualities into one class, or genus. When 
we have done this we know that these qualities will be found 
in every object in the group. 

5. Name the concept. The name is a tag, or label, or a 
string with which we tie things together into bundles. We 
must be sure to make the name general because it is to be 
applied to a class or group. In naming the concept one must 
have regard to the next larger group and define or name the 
concept in terms of it. For instance, one might define cat as a 
material substance which is correct but which is too indefinite. 
If one says that a cat is a mammal, he is much more accurate 
than he would be to say that a cat is an animal altho both 
anwers would be true. 

Value of Clear Concepts.—The ideas of children are 
necessarily hazy because of the lack of experience. The child 
hears words used in regard tg certain things and forms his 
concepts of things accordingly. To a child “far away” does 
not mean what it does to his father. Narrow means to him 
the width of pieces of ribbon, pieces of boards, etc. He, like 
adults, measures the unknown in terms of the known. To one 
who has never been a hundred miles from home distance is 
wrongly conceived. The stream where the old swimming hole 
was, was to us a wide stream. The hill back of the house was 
very high. Its top almost reached the sky. In most of our 
early concepts the proportion was sadly awry. We had to 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 65 


observe many, many instances before we succeeded in cor- 
recting them so they would even begin to approach accuracy. 

The chief reason for inaccurate, hazy concepts is the fact 
that our perceptive material is inadequate, and then, there is 
always a tendency to generalize too hastily. The Psalmist 
says, “I said in my haste all men are liars.” -(Ps. 116:11) 
If he had been in less of a hurry and observed a few more men 
he would not have been so apt to call all men liars including 
himself. We often try to make a standing jump from the 
particular to the general without exploring every foot of the 
way. This makes for hazy concepts. 

If one has been deceived, he jumps to the conclusion that 
all men are false. If he has been cheated in business, all men 
are rascals. If one has trouble, this world is a vale of tears. 
One carries a rabbit’s foot to bring him good luck, and another 
looks at the tea-grounds in his cup to learn whether or not he 
is going to have visitors. A man said to me recently, ‘Never 
trust a curly-haired Italian.’ He had found one Italian who 
could not be trusted and he happened to have curly hair, so he 
made a hasty generalization that all curly haired Italians are 
untrustworthy. 

Think of some of your concepts and see just how clear 
they are. What is your concept of republican, democrat, social- 
ist, Bolshevik, soviet? What is your conception of Protestant, 
Romanist, Jew? How did you arrive at your concept? Have 
you clearly perceived the elements that enter into the concept 
of any of these groups as held by those most friendly to such 
groups? Why are you an adherent of a certain religious body? 
Have you made an honest effort to form a correct concept of 
what the group stands for? That is, have you formed an accu- 
rate, clear concept, or have you inherited your religion and 
politics as some persons do their parents’ money? 

What is your conception of revolution? Do you have the 


66 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


same idea of it when you think of George Washington as you 
do when you think of Lenine? What is your conception of 
right, wrong, good, bad? What is your conception of the 
relation of capital and labor? What is your conception of 
democracy? Will your concept of democracy apply to indus- 
try and religion as well as to politics? 

These and many more subjects are of very vital importance 
to every live man and woman, and yet vast numbers of fairly 
intelligent persons have only the most hazy ideas about them. 
They have strong opinions which all too often are based upon 
prejudice, but as for clear concepts they have few. 

Growth of the Intellect—The growth of the intellect 
is indicated by the number of accurate concepts one has. A 
growing mind is always forming new concepts and clarifying 
old ones. One begins to stagnate mentally when he gets to 
the point where new ideas disturb him. Many of us are like 
the mother of the young woman who went to hear Charles 
Darwin lecture on the “Descent of Man.’ She went home 
and told her mother that she believed that Darwin’s theory 
was correct and man had descended or ascended from some 
sort of lower animal life. Her mother replied, “That may be 
so, but if it is let us pray God that just as few people as pos- 
sible may find it out.” She was afraid that her old concept of 
the origin of man would be upset and she did not want to have 
to go to the trouble of developing another concept. 

In order to maintain mental flexibility one must be con- 
tinually forming new concepts and clarifying old ones. Con- 
cepts of a real live person are bound to change. Reinterpreta- 
tion of his experience is continually going on. It is a lack of 
a good stock of concepts that makes it hard for one to change 
occupations late in life and succeed. One has lived with one 
set of concepts so long that the energy required to develop new 
ones is too great for him to muster. For instance, one who 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 67 


has worked for years in a paper mill has had to develop an 
entirely different set of concepts than one who has been em- 
ployed in the steel industry. His mental and muscular reac- 
tions have been built up in connection with his stock of con- 
cepts, and they are too rigid to change, and when he is thrown 
out of industry for any reason, he is unable to get back unless 
he can get into the same work. 

Adequate in Scope.—One should aim to make his con- 
cepts adequate in scope as well as in number. Think of the 
farmer’s conception of red clover. He usually thinks of it as 
a plant that makes good fodder for stock and the roots of 
which enrich the soil. The concept of the botanist includes a 
knowledge of structure and function of the plant, of the family 
to which red clover belongs, the climate and the kind of soil 
in which it grows. The concept of the physicist includes ques- 
tions of osmosis of liquids, circulation of the sap and other 
purely physical phenomena. The concept of the chemist will 
consist of a knowledge of the chemical reactions carried on by 
the plant. His concept of red clover is that of a laboratory 
where chemical processes are carried out. The bacteriologist 
thinks of red clover as a plant the roots of which provide 
opportunity for certain bacteria to grow and thru growth to 
take from the atmosphere quantities of nitrogen and build it 
into the roots of the clover which are then released to feed other 
plants. The concept of the geologist involves a knowledge of 
what materials are built into the structure of the plant, from 
the disintegration of what rocks the material came. Are they 
the new or older rocks of the earth? And at once the age and 
history of the earth enters into his concept. 

To all this must be added a knowledge of what the clover 
has added to the civilization of the world thru providing food 
for man. 

To have an adequate concept of red clover one should have 


68 PRACTIGATIIES V.GHOEQGN, 


the essentials of all of those of the farmer, the botanist, the 
physicist, the chemist, the bacteriologist, and the geologist. 
So we see again the necessity for wide experience requiring 
consideration of an ever increasing number of details or 
particulars. 

Speed and Accuracy in Generalizing.—The development 
of concepts is a slow process. It took the race ages to distin- 
tinguish between mind and matter and according to present 
ideas of science, the line of demarkation cannot be drawn with 
certainty now. Max Mueller says that all the concepts that 
ever passed thru the mind of ancient India may be reduced to 
one hundred and twenty-one root concepts. When we recall 
the height to which that people attained in order to produce 
such a language as the Sanskrit and then recall that the root 
concepts number only one hundred and twenty-one, we are 
impressed with the slowness of the development of concepts. 

It is a slow process for a child to comprehend that two 
apples and two apples make four apples, but it is a much longer 
and slower process for the child to comprehend that two twos 
of anything make four, and then to complete the generalization 
and know that two and two make four. It is difficult for the 
child to see that four horses, four cats, four dogs, four cows, 
all resemble each other in being four. The difficulty is well 
illustrated by a story told of some English sailors. One of 
their number said to the group of eight or ten, “If a ’errin’ and 
a ’alf cost one and ’a pence what will twelve ’errin’s cost?” 
The group wracked their brains in silence for several minutes. 
Then one of them said, “Eh, Bill, and did you say ’errin’? 
I'll be blamed if I aint been figgerin’ all the time on mackerel.” 

The process of differentiation is as slow with adults as with 
children. We all have some kind of a concept of the great 
American product corn, or mahizg as the Indians called it when 
Columbus arrived. For several generations the concept of 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 69 


corn included the particulars of its growth and something of its 
food value to man and beast. We recognized the stalks as 
food for cattle and the-cobs for pipes, and that the grain itself 
could be made into corn meal and corn starch, but now a con- 
cept of corn that is accurate and uptodate must include the 
particulars about the more than a hundred different commercial 
products made from corn and which add millions of dollars to 
the value of the corn crop every year. It was difficult for us 
to see these elements, such as corn oil, oil cake, oil meal, dex- 
trose, corn syrup, tanners’ sugar, and about two dozen others, 
in corn, yet they were there and someone found them. 

What has happened with corn has happened with cotton 
until about three dozen different articles produced from cotton 
are on the market. These so-called by-products add $150,000,- 
000 to the value of the cotton crop annually. 

Now, think of this in connection with your own business 
or profession. Are you thoroly familiar with all of the con- 
cepts employed by the best men in that line? Do you know 
the relation of departments to each other? In other words, 
are you “at home’ in the business? If not, you can have only 
a small measure of success at the best. Many a man thinks he 
_ 1s in a blind alley when he has scarcely made a beginning in 
sounding the possibilities in his field. One has not sounded 
the depths of his present position, nor its breadth of oppor- 
tunity, until he has mastered all the concepts employed by the 
masters of the business and has become familiar with all the 
particulars which enter into those concepts. 

Inaccurate concepts are one of the great handicaps to prog- 
ress. So often we do not see all the particulars that enter into 
the generalization, or in other words are unable to make a 
generalization because we do not recognize the particulars. 
That was the difficulty with the workers in England when the 
power loom was invented. They saw in it a machine that was 


70 PRACTIGATAR SY CHOLOGY 


to throw them out of work, and so they burned all the machines 
they could find. When Whitney invented the cotton gin the 
same thing happened in the United States. None of the 
workers saw that the machines would reduce the cost of cloth 
and multiply its use, thereby increasing the demand for 
workers on farms and in mills and factories. 

The same attitude was assumed by the Christian church 
in regard to science in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and 
eighteenth centuries. The Christian leaders, because of the 
narrowness of their concepts, thot science would destroy the 
church and maybe Christianity too, and so they set themselves 
out to destroy it. The possibility of Christianity and science 
being combined as particulars into a larger concept was 
beyond the reach of the imagination of most of the theologians. 
However, science was not destroyed. A more careful weighing 
of the particulars, or essentials of both, has resulted in forming 
a new concept of life, and the former enemies of science are 
now its most devoted supporters. 

Germany in the past seventy years serves as another 
example of inaccurate generalization. She became possessed 
of three notions which were destined to be her undoing. First: 
she assumed she had the best culture in the world. Second: 
she believed she was called of God to make that culture world- 
wide. Third: she believed she had an invincible machine with 
which to do it. Probably no people ever blinked the facts as 
Germany did. Probably no people ever knew more about 
theoretical psychology and so utterly failed in its application as 
she. It was with Germany as with many individuals. All too 
often the wish is father to the thot. The great danger of half 
truths is that they are the product of faulty concepts. 

The Safeguard.—The only safeguard against faulty con- 
cepts is the careful re-examination of the particulars from 
which the concepts are derived. Such re-examination often 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 71 


reveals elements in the particulars that were overlooked at first. 
A careful analysis and a careful synthesis are the only cor- 
rectives for faulty generalization. Without these we are apt 
to narrow the idea of the class to fit the particulars with which 
we are familiar. 

Language.— When we have completed the analysis and the 
synthesis we are at the place in mental development where 
names become useful. It is useless to teach names to children 
before they have learned the classes to which the names apply. 
We have noted that words are signs, tags, or a string with 
which we tie things together in bundles. In the first text-book 
on grammar I ever studied, we were taught that a word was 
the sign of an idea, but it is hardly that. If it were, the word 
would always recall the idea, but many persons know words and 
do not have any ideas represented by the words. What words 
do is to recall or arouse experiences. If one has had no experi- 
ence, the word cannot recall or arouse any. Hence, words 
which do not arouse experiences are not only useless but serve 
as encumberers of the mental ground. The child receives an 
impression of darkness which he is taught to call black. The 
object moves around the room. He learns to call it “dog.” 
He perceives the object. He forms a neuron pattern, which 
when stimulated gives rise to the consciousness “dog.” He 
feels the dog’s hair. The dog licks his hand. These patterns 
are tied together to form a more elaborate pattern. The word 
recalls this pattern. 

Language serves as a means of communication and also 
serves to preserve the results of thinking by enabling us to 
recall a concept without repeating the entire process by which 
we first arrived at the idea. 

Language is both oral and written and in either case must 
serve to arouse experiences to be of any value. It is difficult 
to express a concept in words. It is difficult to interpret a 


72 PRACTICAL (PSY GHOLOGY 


word so as to get an accurate idea of the concept it is intended 
to convey. 

Language should always be on a par with the mental level. 
Words should not be learned until one attains the mental status 
that enables him to comprehend the essentials of the objects 
included under the name. One may be taught the word “ten” 
so he can recognize it anywhere and yet have little or no con- 
ception of the objects or units which it represents. 

Of course there is no need for oral language until class 
notions begin to be formed. Sometime later signs begin to be 
used to indicate objects and actions. The simplest signs that 
another may learn to interpret more or less accurately are writ- 
ten language. Concepts are class names, and names are in 
reality definitions. Language is a measure of concepts and the 
accurate use of language is one of the best indications of the 
development of the mind. As we have already noted, there 
are many persons who use words without much notion of their 
meaning but who use them fairly accurately in general con- 
versation, expressions such as “psychological moment,” “effi- 
ciency,” “system.” They have acquired the use largely by 
imitation and any examination into the particulars of the con- 
cept conveyed by the words shows how hazy the real meaning 
of the word is to the user. 

So certain have the psychologists become that one’s intel- 
lectual ability may be determined by the use of language that 
Prof. Lewis M. Terman has prepared a list of words, the use 
of which it is claimed will indicate intellectual standing within 
IO per cent of the famous Binet-Simon scale. Professor Ter- 
man derived his list of 100 words by taking the last word in 
every sixth column of a dictionary containing 18,000 words 
which are probably the most common in the language. The 
assumption is that any 100 words selected at random or accord- 


39 «666 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 73 


ing to some arbitrary rule will give the same result. Tests 
enough have been made to indicate that the assumption in 
regard to determining one’s intellectual level is fairly well 
justified. It has been determined that for every word known 
in such a list, the individual knows 180 other words. Using 
180 as a sort of safety factor and multiplying the number of 
words known by it one will arrive at the number of words in 
one’s entire vocabulary. 

Of course there may be cases where one may use words 
correctly and not know the concepts well enough to know the 
180 related words, but that will be quite apt to be offset by 
failing to indicate a correct use of some of the words in the 
list. To find the entire vocabulary of an individual multiply 
the number of words known by 180. Thus if one uses or 
defines 60 words correctly he has a vocabulary of 60 180== 
12,800 words. The following is a list of the standards arrived 
at as a result of many examinations: 


Mientaleleverior Ciwht. i VEALS y. + Wessels Gis ede 6 e's 20 3600 
% "i ra cell WM cee ee erates s 30 5400 
ke PPPLYWELVE DR rile Wisi slate ea-c aissta th Thi cets 40 7200 
aa i. Baa POUTTCCT UN Sino ect ens coms aye) 50 9000 

PMOL ADC EAC Umi cosiy og tart ate est ie hone tahbrae Gal Clow eel g's 65 LIVoo 

BSE TIOL MACE nna ue ls coca gincia tl ta ccet te ae ase 75 13500 


If you wish to test yourself, take the following list of 
words and write each one in a sentence using it in such a way 
as to indicate that you know what it means. Care must be 
exercised in order that not only the word be used correctly 
but that its use indicates that you know what the words mean. 
For instance, you may write for number two, ‘We built a 
bonfire.” The sentence is correct as to structure and probably 
as to fact, but it does not show the meaning of the word for 
_ you can substitute any number of words for bonfire in the 
sentence and have something like the following: 


74, PRACTICAINR SY GHOLOGY 


bonfire 
boat 

We built a4 ship 
playhouse 
tennis court 


little. 


But if you had written “We raked the leaves from the yard 
and built a bonfire of them,’”’ you have made such a use of the 
word that it is quite impossible to mistake its meaning. 

It should be remembered also that intellectual level is not 
dependent upon education, but is independent of it. One comes 
somehow to know these things whether he has studied much or 


Natural ability does the rest. 
The list of words used by Professor Terman: 
68 milksop 


I 
2 


25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
at 
a2 
33 
34 


orange 
bonfire 
roar 
gown 
tap 
scorch 
puddle 
envelop 
straw 
rule 
haste 
afloat 
eye-lash 
copper 
health 
curse 
guitar 
mellow 
pork 
impolite 
plumbing 
outward 
lecture 
dungeon 
southern 
noticeable 
muzzle 
quake 
civil 
treasury 
reception 
amble 
skill 


misuse 


35 insure 

36 stave 

37 regard 

38 nerve 

39 crunch 

40 juggler 

41 majesty 

42 brunette 

43 snip 

44 apish 

45 sportive 
46 hysterics 
47 Mars 

48 repose 

49 shrewd 

50 forfeit 

51 peculiarity 
52 coinage 

53 mosaic 

54 bewail 

55 disproportionate 
56 dilapidated 
57 charter 

58 conscientious 
59 avarice 

60 artless 

61 priceless 
62 swaddle 

63 tolerate 

64 gelatinous 
65 depredation 
66 promontory 
67 frustrate 


69 
70 
7h 
ae 
73 
74 
75 
76 
77 
78 
79 
80 


He needs to know reading, counting, and a little logic. 


philanthropy 
irony 

lotus 
drabble 
harpy 
embody 
infuse 
flaunt 
declivity 
fen 

ochre 
exaltation 
incrustation 


2 laity 


selectman 
sapient 
retroactive 
achromatic 
ambergris 
casuistry 
paleology 
perfunctory 
precipitancy 
theosophy 
piscatorial 
sudorific 
parterre 
homunculus 
cameo 
shagreen 
limpet 
complot 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 7° 


New Concepts.—New concepts are constantly being 
formed and so new words to indicate them come into use. 
There has recently been prepared a dictionary of war words in 
which are listed 5000 new words that came into use in our 
language because of new concepts formed in American minds 
during the war. 

If concepts and words are properly related, we shall come 
to attach to the word the same meaning that we formerly 
attached to the object or to its image. Then hearing the name 
will serve the same purpose as the percept which we received 
from the object itself. Furthermore, the name will help to 
preserve the system into which we gathered the group of par- 
ticulars. For example, the word plant is a sign for all of the 
different specimens in all of the 176,000 or more species in the 
vegetable kingdom. Physics is a sign for those phenomena of 
nature which are included in mechanics, hydraulics, pneu- 
matics, motion, sound, heat, light, electricity, etc. When we 
think of the word we do not think of all these details, and yet, 
we must be familiar enough with these that we shall not include 
chemical processes under the term physics. 

There is a great saving of effort in the use of names. 
Symbols take the place of many details. There is little more 
mental effort required in the thinking of a great scientist than 
there is in the thinking of the Australian Bushman. The 
scientist uses many signs as representatives of a great many ° 
details while the Bushman is obliged to deal continuously with 
the details. The expert mathematician deals with the problems 
of higher mathematics with as little effort as the arithmetician 
does with the more elementary ones for the same reason. One 
classifies extensively: the other, very narrowly. 

Judgment and Judging.— Usually when we think of judg- 
ment or of judging, we think of a judge on the bench, or per- 
haps of God at the last judgment. We are quite apt to get the 


70 PRACTICAD PS) GIOLOGms 


idea that judgment is an arbitrary process which the judge on 
the bench could omit if he only would, or that God could release 
us from if he will. In this we are quite mistaken. Judgment 
is not a creation of theology, nor of psychology, nor even a 
product of the imagination. Judging is a process of thot and 
is innate in any being who has the right of choice, or who 
thinks he has. No one can escape the process, nor its results. 

Judgment is an identification or comparison and a declara- 
tion. Is ice cold or hot? Is an act right or wrong? Is a 
belief theistic or atheistic?, Each answer depends upon what 
the standard is. You compare the thing in mind with the 
standard. An act is honest or dishonest according to your 
standard of honesty. Slavery is right or wrong according to 
the standard. Standards vary. Sixty years ago men were 
proving from the Bible that slavery was right and other men 
were proving from the same book that slavery was wrong. 
They could not both be right. Now they all agree that it is 
wrong, and most of them agree that it was wrong all the time 
they were trying to prove it was right. The interpretation of 
the Bible in regard to slavery has changed, the standard has 
varied. 

Knowledge of Standards.—A knowledge of standards is 
essential in every process of judging and is essential to the 
one who is to judge and also to the one who is to be judged. 
One cannot judge how many feet long a stick of timber is 
unless he knows how long a foot is. One cannot judge whether 
or not one does a fair day’s work unless he has knowledge of 
what constitutes a day’s work. ‘These standards are concepts 
which are arrived at thru the process of judging. 

The Raw Material of Judging.—As we have already seen 
the interpreting and relating of sensations provides the raw 
material out of which percepts are formed, and the relating 
and interpreting of percepts provides the material of which con- 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 7 


cepts are formed. In much the same way concepts are the raw 
material out of which judgments are formed. There is a 
simple judging process in comparing and relating percepts, but 
the judging process comes to its fulness in dealing with 
concepts. 

Judgment compares two concepts and declares whether or 
not they agree. One has in mind a concept of an orange and 
then decides whether or not the object he sees is an orange. 
It is always a choice between two and only two alternatives at 
one time. In perception there may be two or more elements 
and there may be several or many elements entering into the 
formation of the concept, but not so with the judgment. It is 
what Titchener calls ‘the yes-no consciousness.’ The thing is 
or it is not. Not only must the two concepts be held in the 
mind at the same time but a declaration must be made about 
them. They must be logically related. 

As one’s ability to form concepts depends upon his stock of 
percepts, so his ability to form judgments depends upon his 
stock of concepts. Other things being equal the one with the 
most facts at his command is the more intelligent. There is no 
“corner” on facts. There is no limit to the number of con- 
cepts one may form except his own determination. One can 
continually acquire facts and form new concepts. 

Many judgments are false because of a failure to get all 
the facts. We do not observe extensively enough nor accu- 
rately enough. Often we think too much and observe too little. 
We do a good deal of thinking but do it with only a part of 
the facts in mind. We should aim to observe widely and then 
think accurately. Many judgments are false for us because we 
have taken them from others. It is not enough for one to think 
as others think. If that were so, then there can be no progress 
for the race. It is because men have arisen who do not think 
as others do, but who think far ahead of the great mass that 


78 PRAUCTICALTESY CHOU Gt. 


any advance is possible. This is true in religion, politics, 
science, business, everywhere and in every line. Jesus, Paul, 
Socrates, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Harvey, Darwin, Rous- 
seau, Jefferson, Lincoln, De Lesseps, Langley and scores of 
others have thot way ahead of the group and often reached 
conclusions contrary to it, which it later accepted. 

Training the Judgment.—We should not ask others to 
accept our conclusions, neither should we accept the judgments 
of others unless we familiarize ourselves with the process thru 
which they reached their conclusion. If we know the facts 
involved and the method pursued we are in a position to test 
the conclusion ourselves. A lack of either of these makes one 
narrow, and gives rise to prejudice and bias. 

Judging cannot be taught; it must be practiced. Every 
person seeks an honest judgment and everyone believes his 
judgments are true, yet often they are false. The wise man 
seeks to have his judgments tested by others. He seeks honest 
criticism. The unwise man does not want criticism, and is 
seldom willing to profit by the experience of others in judging. 
Practice makes perfect in judging as in anything else. The 
finest result of a trained mind is the ability to judge accurately. 

Judging is a process of comparison and in its more formal 
application deals with the comparison and relation of concepts. 
“Judging means inquiry; inquiry means doubt; doubt means 
conflicting opinions.”’ Judgment is all the time seeking dis- 
coveries among unrelated concepts. The progress of the world 
has been due to relating concepts that formerly seemed to have 
no common elements. All inventions and discoveries have 
been due to the same process. Sometimes these discoveries 
have been accidental, but in most cases men have been searching 
for these relationships and often after years of search have 
been rewarded with success. 

It is said that the streets of Philadelphia were paved with 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 79 


anthracite until 1803. Then one day a house caught fire and 
burned down and with it part of the walk running to the 
street. This walk was made of anthracite. The people then 
discovered that there was a great amount of heat stored in 
those black rocks. Whether or not the story is true, it is true 
that man in some way came to know that hard coal could be 
used for fuel. Man needed heat and there was the heat in the 
anthracite, but no one had been able to discover the common 
element and adapt it to use. 

Some thirty-five years ago the business men of Niagara 
Falls set themselves at the task of discovering some way of 
using the enormous power of the rapids above the falls. There 
was great need of power on the entire Niagara frontier and 
there was that enormous power going to waste. Could not 
some way be found by which that power could be harnessed 
and made to meet the needs of the people? After some years 
of effort there was found a way. Turbines were installed and 
connected to electric generators and by means of high power 
lines the Niagara power is now carried for hundreds of miles 
to shops, factories, and railways. There was nothing really 
new in the plan. It involved the discovery and relating of 
what had before been undiscovered and unrelated. That was 
an exercise of judgment. 

Men for years had been familiar with revolving metal in 
both sheet and solid form. All metallic machinery involved 
the process. Men had for years been familiar with the horse- 
shoe magnet, but one day Michael Faraday revolved a piece 
of sheet metal between the poles of a magnet and as a result 
the transportation and artificial lighting of the world has been 
revolutionized. Today the electric generator and its com- 
panion, the electric motor, are serving millions because some- 
one discovered a relationship between concepts that seemed to 
have no relation, 


80 PRACTICAL PSY GHOLOGY 


Who would think that trees are made of newspapers? Or 
to state it differently, who would have thot a few years ago 
that newspapers could be made of trees? There was in paper 
and in trees a common element that would help form a new 
concept when properly related. The discovery of cellulose in 
wood and its identification with the same material in paper has 
made possible the building up of the great paper industry. 

Discoveries are being made all the time. New relations 
are being found, and new concepts set up. Who is going to 
make them in your business? Do you realize that no matter 
what your business is there are some improvements to be made 
thru some such discoveries, that there are undiscovered rela- 
tionships in the material and in the methods used and that 
someone is bound to discover? Are you waiting for some- 
one else to make the discovery? Why do you not set yourself 
to make it? Why wait for someone else? 

You want to develop your intellect to its highest. That 
can be done by using it. The best place to use it to its full 
capacity is in your everyday task. 

Any man or boy in any industry who has been at his work 
long enough to master it knows more about his part of it than 
any one else connected with the business. If improvements 
are to be made, he is the logical one to make them. No one 
else has so fine an opportunity to discover unrelated concepts 
in your job as you have. Are improvements to be made in 
the machine you use? You make them. Are improved 
methods or shortened processes to be discovered and installed? 
You discover and install them. If a better man than you were 
to take your place what would he do that you are not doing? 
When you have answered that question, immediately begin to 
do those things yourself. By doing all that the better man 
could do one makes himself equal to the better man. 

Many of these discoveries are made by accident, but 


CONCEPTS AND JUDGMENT 81 


almost every discovery is made while one is searching for 
something. He may not find what he is looking for but he is 
searching. His mind is awake, alert. Columbus was search- 
ing for a route to India; he did not find it, but he discovered 
something. 

This all has a bearing on psychology, because the increas- 

ing number of concepts is the measure of our mental growth. 
It is not enough for one to do his work well today. No one 
gets real satisfaction from just doing well; he must do it the 
very best possible. Then he finds joy and happiness, because 
one can never do his very best without mental growth, and it 
is growth that brings happiness. One must be bigger than 
his job; must grow faster than his job; or he will soon be too 
small for the job. It means that whatever your place in the 
world may be, whether mining or farming, manufacturing or 
selling, preaching or teaching, you must be able to relate all 
your experience and all of your thinking to your work. Every 
new concept must somehow be related to the task. Every 
book you read, every course you study must somehow be 
applied. One who studies psychology and does not relate it to 
his everyday activities is like one who has money but does not 
invest it. 
_- Do you want to succeed? Then you must do. In order to 
do you must know. One’s power to do depends upon his 
ability to know. You can know more today than you knew 
yesterday. You can know more tomorrow than you know 
today and so on as long as normal life continues. 

It depends upon your determination. Have you decided 
to know more? Then all the powers of the universe are at 
your command. You are master. 


It matters not how strait the gate, 

How charged with punishment the scroll 
I am the master of my fate; 

I am the captain of my soul, 


CHAT LICR LV 
THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 


MOST philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies thot that man was the product of environment and 
education. They believed that all men were born equal but 
later became unequal on account of unequal opportunities. 
Descartes was one of these. He says: “Good sense is of all 
things among men the most equally distributed ... the 
diversity of our opinions does not arise from some being en> 
dowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely 
that we conduct our thots along different ways and do not 
fix our attention on the same objects.” 

The cry of the French Revolution of “liberty, equality, 
fraternity” was based on a similar idea. The Declaration of 
Independence reflected the spirit of that time when it was 
held to be self-evident “that all men are created free and 
equal.” The idea of the equality of men has always been one 
of the fundamentals of democracy. Upon that belief has been 
founded systems of education, government, and theology which 
have been carried over into our own day, but the study of 
psychology has made it perfectly plain that all men are not 
created equal, that no two nervous systems are alike, that the 
same environment and education will not always produce the 
same quality of mind. 

There is such a thing as inherent ability or capacity and 
there is such a thing as a lack of both and no environment 


and no system of education can make up for the lack. Psycho- 
82 





THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 83 


_logical tests of various kinds, and especially the Army Intel- 
ligence Tests, have made clear what many had come to realize 
in a general way. The Army tests were given to 1,735,000 
men who were taken from all walks and stations of life and 
who represent fairly well a vertical section of the American 
people. According to these tests there are in America about 
15 millions of persons who can be classed as “A” and “B” 
in mental ability. The remaining 85 millions, or a few 
more, fall into groups below these two classes. So far as 
other peoples go they do not rank above us either in grades 
or in the percentage of population in the grades. 

This might seem to have a tendency to destroy our faith 
in the importance of education and environment. It no doubt 
comes as a severe shock to those who have thot that education 
is a panacea for all the ills of our civilization but the facts 
will do us good if we face them squarely and try to adjust our- 
selves to them. 

When we begin to inquire into the cause for this inequality 
we find that one of the reasons is the fact that the physical 
machine that we call the body does not function equally well 
in all individuals. All human bodies do not react with the 
same rapidity and accuracy. We all know some persons who 
are very quick in all their movements and others who are 
very slow. We know others who see and hear accurately and 
others who do not, others who interpret quickly and accurately 
and others who do not. Some can see thru a complex problem 
and others cannot. Some learn complex processes and per- 
form them with skill and others can never learn the process 
so as to perform it with any degree of proficiency. These dif- 
ferences depend largely upon the special senses and the con- 
dition of the brain, especially the cortex. Two persons may 
receive similar sensations at the same time. The nervous sys- 


84 PRAGTIGALY Pay GHOLOGY 


tem of one transmits readily and accurately what it has re- 
ceived. It is promptly interpreted and the appropriate action 
determined upon and the action performed while the other 
person is still “thinking about it.” 

Reaction Time.—The time required from the receiving 
of the sensation to the completion of the action is called reac- 
tion time. There are many ways of testing persons to learn 
how quickly they react to various stimuli. These tests not 
only indicate the time but they also furnish a clue to one’s 
adaptability to the work in hand. Without some tests there is 
much loss of time and energy. By the use of tests instead of 
the old “cut and try” method, the unfit as well as the fit may 
be discovered at once. It is not enough to know one is quick 
but we want to know how quick. 

Elements Involved.—There are several elements that 
enter into the process which runs as follows: 


1. The time required by the sensory nerves in transmit- 
ting the stimulus to the appropriate brain center. 

2. The time required by the brain, or the mind, in per- 
ceiving or interpreting the stimulus after it is reg- 
istered in the cortex, or as we may say, breaking over 
or thru the synapses in the spinal cord or brain. 

3. The time required in issuing a motor order. 

4. The time required by the motor nerve in transmitting 

the command to the muscle to produce action, 


The first and fourth are purely physiological times. The 
second and third are more largely mental, or psychological 
times. It has been established that the nerves transmit sensa- 
tions at the speed of about 370 feet a second. The mental 
time or the breaking thru the synapse is very much slower. 
The average time for the four parts of the process is from 
1-10th to 1-5th of a second. 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 85 


Nerve Fibers.—The white mass of the interior of the 
brain is composed of fibers of which there are three sets, or 
groups. 


1. Those reaching from the cortex to the various internal 
organs of the body, and to the eyes, ears, nose, 
tongue, etc. 

- 2. Those that run from one half of the brain to the other 
half, enabling both halves to function together. 

3. Those that run from one area of the cortex to another. 


These are so numerous that every part of the cortex is 
connected with every other part. 

Association Areas.—We have referred in a previous 
chapter to the association areas and the association centers. 
Herrick says the association areas are the most important part 
of the human cerebral cortex. These parts of the human brain 
are very much enlarged in comparison with those of the 
anthropoid apes. In the apes the projection areas are fully as 
well developed as in man, but not so in the association areas. 
The smaller brain weight of the ape is due largely to the lack 
of development of the association centers. The same is true 
in regard to humans. Those of lower mentality have unde- 
veloped association areas. The number of brain cells developed 
nearly double by the end of the fourteenth year. No new cells 
are created but those present develop. By the end of the 
fifteenth year the volume of cells is about 125 times what it 
was at birth and in the next fifteen years increases to 150 times 
the volume at birth. The cells constitute a very small part 
of the total brain and they may increase in size many times 
and not greatly affect the size or weight of the brain. The 
size of the head is not a true index of the size of the brain. 

Frontal Association Areas.—The frontal association 
areas are the last to develop and the first to disintegrate. Under 


86 PRACHICAT (PSY CHON@GY 


the influence of alcohol and of fevers the higher powers of the 
mind, which means the higher powers to associate, are the 
first to disappear. A study of the history of the race indicates 
that the older the faculty the more nearly universal it will be 
and in the “break-down” the last power acquired will be the 
first to go. It requires a long time to stabilize a power in the 
nervous system of the race. Insanity is the breaking down of 
recently acquired racial powers. 

Color Sense.—The color sense appears in the child at the 
age of three or four. It appeared in the race about three or 
four hundred thousand years ago. Color seldom appears in 
dreams and when it does it is usually the color red. Red was 
the first color known, or identified by man and ultra-violet the 
latest. In sleep or in delirium these later acquirements disap- 
pear first. The same is true of the musical sense. The real 
musical sense appears at about fifteen years of age. Only 
about 50 percent of the race have any musical sense. About 
three or four in one hundred thousand have any real musical 
sense. The musical sense is almost never retained in dreams 
and never in insanity, not even by musicians. The higher 
association complexes are the first to break because they are 
the latest to be acquired by the race, and in the case of many 
individuals have not yet been acquired. 

Mental Growth.—Mental attainments depend upon the 
development of the association areas which are located, ac- 
cording to Flechsig, as follows: 


I. In the frontal region. 
2. Between the kinesthetic and optical centers. 
3. Between the optical and auditory centers, 


Age of Development.—The great association centers be- 
gin to develop at about twelve years of age, or at the beginning 
of puberty. The upper limit of feeble-mindedness is about 


THEAWOREDIOR ASSOCIATION 87 


twelve years. This accounts for the inability of feeble-minded 
to associate. Children under twelve and feeble-minded persons 
do not associate as well as normal adults do. They do not 
have the brain development necessary, and hence, not having 
the tools cannot use them. They are able to make only the 
simplest classifications and associations. The reason why some 
persons have no musical sense, no artistic sense, or no moral 
sense is because the association centers which relate the various 
impressions, the interpretation of which makes these “senses,” 
are still undeveloped. 

World of Associations.—We live in a world of associa- 
tions. Think of anything you will. In a moment you will be 
thinking of something else and a moment later you will be 
thinking of something different still. Think of the school you 
attended and you will think of the teacher, of the chums of 
your school days, then of the trees that grew in the school 
yard, of the games you used to play. Then your mind 
“wanders” to the successes of your former friends, and so 
forth. Thinking of anything makes us think of other things 
which are in some way connected with it. 

All ideas have certain definite associations with other ideas 
and they tend to come up in consciousness in groups. Facts 
are of no value in and of themselves. It is only as they are 
related to other facts that they serve us. That is the only way 
they exist. Things in space and events in time do not exist 
alone but are always a part of a larger group or of some more 
complex process. Facts have relations like the members of a 
family. Some are very near relations, others more distant like 
third and fourth cousins. 

One of the first things we ask about a man is in regard to 
his relations. When we find out that he is the son of Bill 
Jones or of the Hon. Welkin Ring we begin to be at ease. 
_ Hereafter when we think of the Hon. Welkin Ring we will 


88 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


think of this man. That is, they will be associated in our 
mind because they are related in the family. 

An Idea Does Not Appear Without Reason.—An idea 
never appears in consciousness unless there is a definite reason 
why it should. We often hear persons speak of thots “pop- 
ping” into their minds as tho they came from nowhere with- 
out cause. This is not the case. In many instances we can 
trace back connections from what we were thinking about to 
the ideas which seemed to come without cause. In so many 
instances has this been true that psychologists are convinced 
that no idea comes into consciousness without being called 
directly or indirectly. We shall say more about this when we 
discuss the subconscious. 

What is Association?—Association is the tendency of the 
mind to recreate a previous experience when any element of 
that experience appears in consciousness. It depends upon 
the fact that experiences are tied together and that the neuron 
system must be able to respond to stimuli. Both of these are 
essential. If either is lacking the association will be lacking, 
weak, or incomplete. A normal child lacks experience but he 
has the potentiality. He cannot respond now but he will be 
able to later on. A feebleminded person has the experience 
but he does not have the potentiality. He cannot respond now 

..and in all likelihood never can. We may say that brain plus 
experience equals success in associating and that experience 
minus brain equals failure to associate. 

The Normal Process.—The simple processes of associa- 
tion are carried on by all normal neuron systems. When we 
see an object and hear a sound at the same time we associate 
them and when later we hear the sound we at once “see” the 
object. We associate the impressions received thru one sense 
with those received thru another sense just as readily as we 
do different impressions received thru the same sense. This 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 89 


is called the conditioned reflex, and leads often to substituting 
coincidences for causes, as in Rostand’s Chanticleer, in which 
it is believed that his crowing caused the sun to rise, because 
the rising always had followed his crowing. 

Cause of Association.—The higher, or more complex, 
associations are thot to be caused by blocking off or damming 
up the stream of nervous energy in such a way that it cannot 
follow the old path or channel. The energy seeks a new out- 
let and in so doing overflows into the great association areas. 
It seems to act like a stream flowing thru nearly level ground. 
Any damming of the stream causes the water to rise and very 
slowly but very surely to seek other outlets or channels. Some- 
times the change of channel may be due to an increase of water, 
in which case the stream, because of its increased volume, 
sweeps away the little curves and crooks which it followed, 
so naturally in ordinary times. This overflow may cause a 
permanent change in the channel while only streamlets follow 
the old line. So with association, the blocking of the energy 
may cause an overflow into new channels, and also, under the 
influence of great fear, anger, or any other deep emotion the 
old neuron paths may be almost completely swept away and 
new associations set up, leaving only “streamlets”’ flowing 
thru the old channels. Any blocking such as fear, curiosity, 
hesitancy, or the discovery of a new truth may cause the nerve 
energy to overflow into new channels and form new neuron 
patterns. As a result new associations may be formed which 
are much stronger than the old ones. 

Association results because neuron patterns or processes 
follow a certain order. Two or more pathways have been con- 
nected and in some way become “fixed” so that they are more 
or less permanent. When one is disturbed the other is also. 
It is like ringing a telephone on a party line. All the bells 
ting at once. They are all associated. Each idea has its own 


90 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


system of cells, nerves, or pathways. Stimulate any one and 
the idea results, or arouse the idea and the pathway is stimu- 
lated. The mental process and the physiological process in the 
cortex are closely connected. We associate because of the 
structure of the brain upon which all mental processes, so far 
as we know, depend. 

Past and Present.—Association supplements present ex- 
perience with reproductions from past experiences. If one has 
been burned, consciousness of pain occurs when fire is seen. 
Pleasure is felt by a hungry person when food is seen or even 
thot of. The soldier hears the whiz of a shell and “ducks.” 
One hears an auto horn honk and “sees” the car approaching 
without even looking in its direction. In each instance some 
element from the past experience is added to what the present 
holds. The richer one’s past experiences, the more will be 
added. If one is a student of history, what a wealth of asso- 
ciations arise when one speaks of the reforms of the Gracchi. 
If one has visited Oxford University, what pleasure is ex- 
perienced when reference is made to Trinity, Christ’s, Mag- 
dalen, Keble college, etc. The lack of experience indicates a 
poverty of association that is often painful as well as amusing. 
The story is told of an Indiana couple, a brother and sister, 
both unmarried, who had lived together and labored hard for 
years and just before the World War decided they would visit 
Europe and see something of the world before they got so old 
they could not. They visited western Europe and went down 
into Italy. One morning at breakfast in Florence they fell in 
with a well informed American to whom they began relating 
their experiences and their delights at what they had seen. He 
asked several questions about what they had seen, discussed 
literature, history, etc., and finally asked what they thot of 
Omar Khayyam. The brother replied that they had not seen 
it yet but were going to the next day. After breakfast the 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION QI 


sister said, “James, you make me tired with your putting on 
airs.” James replied, ‘“What’s the matter now, Jane?’ She 
replied, “You talk about Omar Khayyam as tho it is a build- 
ing or an art gallery or something to be seen, when everybody 
knows it’s a cheese.” Omar Khayyam did not add much to 
their experience. 

Laws of Association—Contiguity.—There are two ways 
in which we associate things and events. The first is associa- 
tion by contiguity, or as it is often called mechanical associa- 
tion. Do you know why they placed B next to A in the 
alphabet? Why did they not put it just before Z? Why did 
our teachers not begin by teaching us the letter Z first, then 
Y, X, W, etc.? There is no particular reason except that the 
letters were taught them in the order in which they taught them 
to us. Of course there is nothing about A that suggests B. 
We just have to learn that B follows A. There is no way of 
reasoning it out. 

Things that arbitrarily come together in consciousness, 
however unlike they may be and which are somehow so related 
that when we think of one we think of the other, are said to 
be associated by contiguity. 

Committing poetry to memory is association by contiguity. 
Even tho we see the pictures described, the pictures them- 
selves are arbitrarily associated and have to be so remembered. 
We just have to remember that a certain picture comes before 
another and having learned them in that order, we find it much 
easier to repeat them forward than it would be to name the 
pictures in the reverse order for the same reason that we can 
name the letter following H in the alphabet more quickly than 
we can the one preceding it. Read the following verses and 
note the order of the pictures and then commit the verses to 
memory and note carefully how you associate the various items 
referred to: 


92 PRACTICAT ARS YCHOLOGcy 


THEY SHIPS 


One ship drives east, and another drives west, 
With the self-same winds that blow. 

’Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales 
Which tells us the way they go. 


Like the waves of the sea are the ways of fate 
As we voyage along thru life. 
*Tis the set of the soul which decides its goal 
And not the calm or the strife. 
—ELLA WHEELER WILCOX, 


Association by contiguity is really at the basis of all associa- 
tion. It is based upon the fact that the stimuli are in con- 
sciousness at the same time. Contiguity of experience gives 
rise to association. A particular element in the new pattern is 
associated with others having a similar element of time. The 
elements are actually together in mind. 

We may never actually see things together but we see oF 
hear the names together. I think of London, Paris, Berne 
together, not because I ever saw them together but because 
they were cities visited on a certain European trip. I asso- 
ciate them also because they are capital cities. They are in 
mind together under both of these heads. We think of 
Alexander the Great and Napoleon at the same time, altho 
they lived centuries apart, as readily as tho we saw them 
walking down Fifth Avenue together on Easter morning. 

Children and feebleminded associate aimost entirely by 
contiguity. Time and place are the most important things in 
the way of grouping for them. Children do not discover like- 
nesses as readily as they will later. We do not associate events 
by the time of their occurrence so much as by the time that 
we think about them. 

Similarity——The other way of associating is by similarity, 
or, as it is sometimes called, logical association. It depends, 
not upon time or place so much as it does upon the inner 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 93 


relations of things and events. There must be some point of 
identity between the things and events associated. We asso- 
ciate chess and checkers not alone because they are games, nor 
because they are played somewhat alike, but because they are 
played on the same kind of a board. We associate billiards 
and pool because they are played with balls and cues on similar 
tables. 

Association by similarity can only occur when the nervous 
energy overflows the simple perceptive patterns into the great 
association areas. We do not begin to seek for relations of 
cause and effect, genus and species, law and example, means 
and ends, premise and conclusion, likeness and unlikeness, etc., 
tintil we have passed the age of about twelve years, or in 
other words until the great association areas begin to develop. 
Similarity requires very much more elaborate neuron patterns 
than does contiguity and unless these patterns are developed 
wide association is not possible. 

Likeness and Difference.—We associate or group by like- 
nesses and differences. We group people by their likes and 
dislikes, by whether they agree with us or not. None of 
these groups agree in all points but they have one outstanding 
point of agreement. All men are not alike. All Odd Fellows 
are not odd. All ministers are not alike, yet there is a char- 
acteristic of ministers because of their views, their training, 
their calling, which lets us associate them. So with the other 
groups. There is enough in occupation, profession, trade, to 
tie men together in groups. It is the same when we deal 
with material qualities of objects as it is when we deal with 
personalities. 

Need of Wide Association.—It is quite necessary if one 
is to make the best use of his powers that he make wide asso- 
ciations. He cannot know unless he does associate widely. 
What I mean may be illustrated by the following. One is 


04. PRACTICAIIPSY GHOrOGy 


asked if he knows Mr. A. He replies that he does, that he 
and Mr. A are both members of the Lawyers’ Club. Another 
knows him as a member of the Presbyterian Church, another 
as a member of the Masonic fraternity, still another as a mem- 
ber of the Democratic County committee. None of these know 
him in more than the one relation. None of them know him 
in the home where he appears as husband and father. They — 
do not associate Mr. A with enough groups to really know him. 
To know Mr. A one must be able to associate him with all 
of these and still other groups. 

One may know that iron rusts and not associate the fact 
with the science of chemistry. He may know that wet clothes 
hung on the line dry, but he may never associate the idea 
with the science of physics. He may know something about 
the molecule and the atom but he may not associate them in 
such a way as to tie physics and chemistry into the group of 
physical sciences with physiography, meteorology, astronomy, 
etc. One may know a multitude of facts and yet not associate 
them in such a manner that they throw light on all his prob- 
lems, and yet it is possible to do that. It is possible to so 
associate that the facts of physics will throw light on every 
other physical science. Association by similarity is at the 
foundation of comparative anatomy, comparative physiology, 
comparative religion, etc. 

One should be on the lookout for new associations, and 
for opportunities to increase the extent of the old ones. “Old 
friends are best” is a saying that may be true, but old associa- 
tions are not always the best. Often as in anger old associa- 
tions that we thot were completely broken up reappear. In 
unguarded moments regrettable associations of former days 
arise in consciousness and before we are aware of it they have 
found expression in action. This not only indicates that the 
old associations are still there but also that they are still strong. 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 95 


Drowning persons often see their whole past life flashed 
before them in an instant. A sudden accident on land pro- 
duces the same effect. A great emotion such as fear of 
drowning rushes thru one’s mind on a sort of a “Paul. 
Revere’s Ride,” disregarding all conventionalities and customs, 
arousing “every Middlesex hamlet and farm’’ of the mind to 
the impending danger, and so one sees all his past, or enough 
of it to make him feel that nothing has been omitted. 

Power of Association.—The power of association is al- 
most beyond belief: Ideas are the part of us that do things. 
Often they do the wrong thing. When they do, it is because 
of wrong associations that have been established in the mind. 
We saw in an earlier chapter that the sympathetic nervous 
system controls all of the vital organs and that impressions 
made upon the cerebrospinal nervous system would affect the 
sympathetic system. Impressions in the way of ideas in con- 
sciousness will affect the subconsciousness and the subcon- 
sciousness will cause the vital organs to function in accordance 
with the ideas received. 

For instance, one once ate sour cherries and drank milk at 
the same meal and afterwards was ill. He gets the idea that 
it was the milk and cherries that caused the illness and having 
associated the illness with milk and cherries he cannot again 
eat the two together without being sick. He says the cherries 
soured the milk and that made him sick. If he knew that the 
hydrochloric acid in the stomach sours every drop of milk as 
soon as it reaches the stomach whether one eats cherries or 
not he would have to find another reason for being ill, or more 
likely he would go on eating cherries and drinking milk and 
not suffer any ill effects from them. 

A man came to me about two years ago who recited an 
experience with milk and cherries similar to what I have just 
stated, When he was a boy forty-five years ago he was made 


96 BRAC LICAR PSG OEGCy 


sick he thot by eating milk and cherries together and altho he 
is very fond of both he has always had to be careful not to 
eat them together. Whenever he has eaten them together he 
has been ill. When I explained to him that all milk sours as 
soon as it reaches the stomach and that it cannot be digested 
until it sours he replied, ‘“[Then what always makes me sick?” 
I explained that in the first instance his stomach may not have 
been functioning quite normally and that the eating of cherries 
and milk may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. 
They may have been the occasion and not the cause of the 
illness, but he not knowirig any other reason assumed that the 
cherries and milk were the cause and having set up that asso- 
ciation in his consciousness, it had immediately laid hold upon 
the subconsciousness and whenever he ate the two foods 
together the subconsciousness upset the action of the stomach 
and he was ill. 

I told him that if he could break up that old association 
he would no longer suffer any inconvenience from eating the 
two articles of food together. He was not able to do it. Then 
I suggested hypnotism, and as the result of one treatment the 
old association was completely broken up and for two years he 
has eaten cherries and milk together on numerous occasions 
without the least discomfort. 

Subconscious.—As we have already stated in another 
chapter, the mind is the whole and the consciousness is the 
part. A number of names are in use in referring to the part 
of the mind that is not consciousness, but we shall use sub- 
consciousness or the subconscious, remembering that when we 
speak of the subconscious mind we are referring to that part 
of the mind which is not in consciousness and not to another 
mind. We have one mind only. It may manifest itself in 
many ways, | 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 97 


Subconscious Association.—The thots of the moment 
pass into the subconsciousness and there remain until recalled. 
They pass into the subconsciousness associated in groups. 
Often we do not know all the elements in the group and only 
under the influence of hypnosis can we get at some of them. 

What we are interested in just now is to see what the sub- 
conscious associations result in. For instance I know several 
persons who have always been a little shy of policemen. Some 
of them had reason to be, but others could give no reason for 
the feeling except that as children some of them had been 
frightened into obeying by being told that the “cop” would 
get them if they did not. Those threats had settled down into 
the subconsciousness and at every appearance of a policeman 
a little wave of emotion was aroused which caused the un- 
pleasant feeling. 

In the minds of most persons the abnormal functioning of 
bodily organs has come to be associated with organic disease. 
But the psychologist knows that most functional disturbances 
are caused by the mind thru wrong association and he knows 
also that the functioning may be made normal by conscious 
control. The organs misbehave because of wrong association 
and can be set right by establishing right associations. The 
trouble is not in the organs of the body but in the mind. This 
does not say that we have no organs, that there is no matter, 
that all is mind. It does not go as far as the Christian 
Scientist and deny all material substance or at least call mate- 
rial things errors. Someone has said that a Christian Scientist 
may deny all materiality but he always knows the right change 
for a five dollar bill. The Christian Scientist can go no fur- 
ther than to help secure conscious control of organic func- 
tioning and he cannot go that far unless he follows exactly 
the laws of mental operation. 

The body functions according to groups of associated 


98 PRACTIGAINES VOC EOI Cy 


ideas. With every idea there is associated an emotion. The 
seat of the emotions is in the sympathetic nervous system. 
One can, to a surprising degree, control his emotions and so 
control the ideas and his actions, conscious and subconscious. 
We shall see more of this later on. 

Some of the groups that are wrongly associated are, for 
instance, the need of eight hours sleep, and that brain work 
is very fatiguing. So strongly fixed in our minds is the idea 
that one must sleep at least eight hours, that if for any reason 
we are awake for an hour or two during the night because of 
“restlessness” we are very much worried. 

No one ever went crazy because of lying awake. One 
may have gone crazy over worrying about lying awake nights. 
One does not need eight hours sleep. He needs eight hours 
rest, which he can secure without sleep if he will lie quietly 
with all voluntary muscles relaxed. But so firmly fixed is the 
idea that it is dangerous to lie awake that if we cannot sleep we 
“roll and toss and worry” and the next morning take pleasure 
in telling how many times we heard the clock strike during the 
night. We never slept a wink from one-thirty to five. Sup- 
pose we didn’t. Suppose you say to yourself, “I lie awake 
half the night lately. Now I am going to go it one better and 
stay awake all night.” You will have the hardest time to keep 
awake you have ever had. The one time when you really find 
it hard to sleep is when you go to bed. “I cannot sleep” has 
become associated with bed and the subconscious mind lays hold 
on the suggestion and keeps you awake. 

In the same way one has difficulty in awaking. One has 
to be called every morning, either by an alarm clock or by 
another member of the household. I have had persons declare 
to me that they just could not wake on time in the morning. 
I have declared to my psychology classes for years that anyone 
can awaken at any hour of the night he wishes, that the only 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 99 


reason one has come to feel that he cannot waken is because 
he has set up an associated group, two elements of which are, 
“I cannot waken” and “six o’clock.’’ If one will form another 
associated group composed of “I can waken” and ‘six o'clock,” 
he will have no difficulty in waking. 

In one of the classes which was composed of men and 
women from the various professions, manufacturing, merchan- 
dising, and allied interests, one of the men said he did not be- 
lieve that it would be possible for him to awaken without being 
called, that he had formerly used an alarm clock, but that he 
had gotten so he could not hear that and that for several years 
his wife had called him every morning, much to his chagrin, 
but he “just could not wake up.’ 

I asked him what time his wife called him and he said she 
always called him at six o'clock. I suggested to him that he 
go home that night and tell his wife that she should not call 
him again, that he was going to apply psychology to waking, 
and that to prove it he would awaken her at five o’clock the 
next morning. He should then go to bed and just before 
falling to sleep say to himself, “I am going to waken at five 
o'clock in the morning, five o’clock,’ and then to go to sleep 
and sleep “like a log” and not with one eye open for fear he 
would over sleep. 

The next Monday evening he came to class and I asked 
him to report. He said his wife made all sorts of fun of him 
when he said she need not call him, saying he would sleep 
until noon if she did not, but to his delight and her surprise 
he called her at five minutes to five the next morning, and that 
he had awakened at six o'clock, the time set, every morning 
during the week. I saw him recently and he said he has not 
used the alarm clock nor been called during the past two years, 
and that on several occasions it has been necessary for him to 
- catch an early train out of the city in connection with some of 


100 PRACTICAL PSs YCHOLOGY 


his business trips and he has never missed one. The old asso- 
ciation seems to have been completely broken up. He has 
really gained self-control. The one who says, “I can” has the 
battle half won. The one who says, “I cannot”’ is licked before 
he starts. 

What is true in regard to sleeping and waking is true in 
regard to the idea of fatigue as a result of brain work. We 
have been told so often that brain work is so very fatiguing, 
that our minds are filled with the idea. The association 
between brain work and fatigue is so strong that anything 
that we interpret as brain work makes us tired. We expect to 
get tired and we get tired. Just as the man who ate cherries 
and drank milk expected to be sick and was until he learned 
better. It is not the brain work, but the worry that some of 
us allow to disturb us that fatigues us. Brain work is no 
more fatiguing than muscular effort, and we recuperate just 
as quickly from it. 

Of course your work is the most wearing, the most tiring, 
because you think it is. You are going to be fatigued in pro- 
portion to what you think the work demands. How sorry we 
have come to feel for ourselves! But learn the facts about 
yourself and set up new associations based on facts instead of 
on fancy. You are stronger, bigger, better than you know. 
Ask yourself how you came by such ideas as you have been 
harboring. In most instances you will find that “they say” 
and or, “everyone knows it,” is the authority for your beliefs. 
Then get behind these and discover the facts and correct your 
beliefs. 

Some of these wrong associations are formed in early 
childhood, have passed into the subconsciousness and are 
often forgotten, while the effects of the association remain 
for years. Several years ago a woman came to me who had 
suffered for years from fear occasioned by hearing footsteps 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION IOI 


behind her on the street. She just could not stand it to have 
anyone walk behind her, and sometimes it seemed as tho she 
must either scream or run, but the imaginary spectacle of a 
woman of forty-five running down the street would restrain 
her while she would “shake like a leaf.” She had finally gotten 
to the point where she came home from her work ‘completely 
exhausted” every night. 

A careful questioning of her failed to throw any light on 
a sufficient cause and hypnotism was suggested. Under hyp- 
nosis [ was able to get from her a recital of an incident that 
occurred before she was seven years old and which she had 
completely forgotten. I told her that when she came out of 
the hypnosis she would recall all that she had told me, which 
she did. As soon as she sensed the situation and saw the 
relation of that early experience to her present fear she began 
to form a new association and has never been troubled by 
“hearing footsteps’? behind her. She had been treated by 
physicians for years, but the cause was not organic but func- 
tional. Physiologically she was sound, but associationally she 
was all awry. When I saw her about two years after I had 
hypnotized her, she said, ““What a world of misery I could 
have been saved if the cause of my trouble could have been 
discovered thirty years ago.” 

There are persons who have formed such a strong associa- 
tion between the idea of ships and seasickness that to go on 
board a ship lying at the pier causes nausea. In fact for years 
I had similar experiences and to stand on land and watch a 
ship roll slightly in the harbor would make me sick. Most of 
us were brot up with the idea of being sea sick if we ever 
should go upon the water and of course we are sea sick at 
the first and usually at the last opportunity, although some of 
us “overcome”’ it. 

We speak of the dignity of labor and yet in the minds of 


102 PRACTICA WP Sy CHOLOGY 


the great majority of the laboring classes there is the idea, 
caused by wrong associations, of the imdignity of labor, and 
all too often the working man is dissatisfied with his lot be- 
cause he feels that he is consigned to an undignified activity. 
He cannot conceive of time or condition when men would 
“work for the joy of working and none would work for pay.” 
Even many of those who have expatiated upon the dignity of 
labor are perfectly willing that the other man should do the 
laboring, and those who have associated all things evil with 
capital have changed their minds as soon as they have acquired 
a little capital. That is, they set up new associations. 

In both of these groups there is a tendency to associate 
everything bad with the other group. The capitalist can 
think of nothing too mean for the laboring man to do, and vice 
versa. In many cases both find grounds for their suspicions, 
and until time and effort are given to the breaking up of the 
old prejudices based upon wrong mental associations and the 
forming of new associations based upon facts which recognize 
that the rascal is the exception in the ranks of both capital and 
labor, there cannot be peace in industry nor in community life. 
The law of cause and effect applies as well in the field of 
association as anywhere else. 

Suggestions of leaders in both groups find expression later 
in the actions of their followers and often neither group 
realizes the origin of its spring of action. 

Dissociation.—In order that association may be made, 
dissociation must also be exercised. Something must be re- 
jected, kept out of mind for the time being. Dissociating is 
rather difficult. Ask a child which is heavier, a pound of 
feathers or a pound of lead and almost without exception the 
answer will be, “‘lead.’’ He cannot dissociate the “lightness”’ 
of feathers and have “heavy” left. In the same way people 
find it difficult to dissociate the idea of impurity from warm 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 103 


air, and yet analysis shows that warm air is just as pure as 
cold air. Most of us find it a little difficult to dissociate wings 
from a bat and see an animal that is not a bird, or the snake- 
like characteristics from an eel and see a fish. 

We meet all things as complexes and not as units and we 
have to learn to dissociate the different elements and to clas- 
sify, or associate. The temperers of steel associate a certain 
color with the temper of the steel, and they must dissociate 
that color from all other elements in the steel. So also with 
dyers of silks, wine-tasters, and tea-tasters. Just as we learn 
to taste the corn starch or the vanilla in ice-cream by dissociat- 
ing them from the other elements, so these experts referred 
to do with their tasks. 

Association always implies inhibition and discrimination. 
When an element appears in consciousness there is a tendency 
to recreate the whole of a former experience. Some of those 
elements are not wanted and so are inhibited. One is walking 
along the street and hears the fire engine approaching. The 
first impulse is to follow the fire engine, but he remembers 
that he has an appointment to keep and so he inhibits or 
drives out of his group of associated elements those which 
would lead him to the fire. Hysterics are those who dissociate 
many experiences from the common group and who exaggerate 
those which they associate. These are perverted associations, 
or obsessions, some element of which is very much exag- 
gerated. Experiences are common where the associated idea 
and its physiological response have produced exaggerations so 
strong that functional processes of the organs of the body are 
disturbed. Prejudice and bias are examples of perverted 
associations. 

The fatigue of marching men will be relieved by martial 
music. It diverts or inhibits certain ideas and arouses the 
emotions. Hypnosis reinforces associations or sets up new 


104 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


ones. However, we must not overlook the fact that there is 
a continuity of mental processes. There is no point where one 
mental process ends and another begins. They are as con- 
tinuous as consciousness itself, and extend in many cases below, 
consciousness. 

Time Required to Form Associations.—Associations are 
not formed instantaneously but require considerable time. 
Practically all of us have had experiences after wrestling with 
difficult problems and then forgetting them for some time to 
find that on returning to them the matter has cleared up. 
Often we read a book, the drift of which we have difficulty 
in getting, then after several weeks or months we re-read it 
and find to our great surprise the matter has cleared up con- 
siderably. Of course this may be due to a wider experience, 
but it is due largely to the fact that the association processes 
have been busy in the subconsciousness of the individual. We 
all realize that cramming the mind full of facts for an exami- 
nation does not acquire knowledge that stays with us. We 
must allow time for associations to be permanently formed. 
This shows why frequent reviews are necessary. These asso- 
ciations once being formed do become quite permanent. If 
one has ever learned to ride a bicycle and has thereby asso- 
ciated the various movements in balancing and propelling the 
wheel he may give up riding for a score of years and then 
mount the bicycle and ride with as much ease as ever. 

Uncontrolled Associations.—One can get a fairly accu- 
rate idea of a person’s ability to associate by naming a word 
and then let the person name the first word that occurs to 
him and the next, etc., say for three minutes, not using words 
connected in sentences. If this test is given to a number of 
persons there will be a wide variation in the number of words 
named. The best record will show an average of I to I 1/5 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 105 


seconds per word and the poorest of 1 1/5 to 2% seconds 
per word. 

Studying the words carefully one will find light thrown 
upon the experience of the individual. If the word “‘ice’’ is 
mentioned, the words named by one person will be, cold, 
frozen water, skating, winter sports, ice house, food preserva- 
tion, etc. Another person will respond with 32 degrees above 
zero, expansion, etc., running off into the principles of refrig- 
eration, the advantages that come from the ice being lighter 
than water and so rising to the surface as it freezes, thus 
saving the life of fish and other inhabitants of the deep. 

In a group of a dozen persons such a list of associated 
words throws a flood of light upon one’s interest, education, 
and experience. 

Tests in proof reading show that one man can read 2629 
letters in one minute and thirty-two seconds, which indicates 
that he read one letter in one-twenty-eighth of a second. An 
unforeseen word will require five-sixths of a second to arouse 
an associated idea in the mind. It takes twice as long to read 
words that have no connection as it does to read words in 
sentences. It requires one-fourth of a second per word to read 
unconnected words and one-eighth of a second to read the 
connected ones. All normal persons recognize colors and pic- 
tures in slightly less time than they do words, but they require 
a longer time to name the color. 

Familiarity and Associations.—The speed of time re- 
quired for association may be increased by familiarizing one’s- 
self with the material. Two men, both of whom know equally 
well that 6 and 5 equal 11 and one of whom works with 
figures constantly and the other with literature, cannot respond 
equally quickly when asked how many 6 and 5 are. The one 
who follows a literary pursuit will, other things being equal, 
require one-tenth of a second longer to answer the question, 


106 PRAGTICAIGRS VCROLOG 


On the other hand, while both of these men know equally 
well that Tennyson is a poet, the one who works with figures 
requires a longer time to state the fact. 

The Demands.—There are certain qualities demanded of 
all persons who seek employment with the idea of succeeding. 
Some positions require a greater emphasis upon one, some 
upon another, but they are all demanded. These three are 
accuracy, skill, and speed, and they are all based upon asso- 
ciation. A person who is not accurate is not worth much any- 
where and unless one has formed the habit of accurate asso- 
ciation, to be compelled to give close attention to accuracy is a 
wearing experience. The tendency that we often come across 
of “that is near enough” indicates a tendency to inaccurate 
observation and association with which industry and science 
today have no patience. Accuracy is essential. Then if one 
expects to succeed let him determine, or have someone de- 
termine for him if he is in doubt, whether or not he is accu- 
rate. Accuracy is not only an essential, it is the first essential. 
The thing must be right. Parts of the machine must be 
accurately made. They must be accurately adjusted. The 
mathematical computation must be correct. 

When accuracy is assured the next demand is for skill. 
Skill in the performance. In order to be skilful the muscles 
must be trained thru wide and careful associations. These 
associations require considerable time and they must become 
second nature. New muscular habits cannot be acquired in 
a day. The acquiring of muscular habits is to quite a degree 
a subconscious process. When one is going up stairs and 
expects to find another step at the top he raises his foot to meet 
it and finds it is not there. His whole muscular system is 
disturbed. Somehow subconsciously the muscles had gotten 
themselves ready to meet that uplift of the body to the next 
step. One sees what looks like a 50 pound dumb bell lying on 


DHEMWORLD OB ASSOCIATION 107 


the gymnasium floor. He stoops to lift it. Subconsciously 
the muscles of the body tighten. He takes hold of the dumb 
bell and with all of that energy ready to be released and to 
his great surprise finds it is made of paper. Skill arises from 
a coordination of the mental and muscular reaction so that 
the task may be done easily as well as accurately. These two, 
accuracy and skill, are essential. 

In addition to these speed is needed, but speed without 
accuracy or skill is a liability. One may be as accurate and as 
skilful as the occasion demands, but if it takes him forever 
and a day to get the work done, industry cannot afford to 
wait for him. On the other hand, if the thing is done speedily 
but is inaccurate the results are too expensive for industry 
to meet. 

These three things, accuracy, skill, speed, ought to become 
as far as possible a second nature to one. In so far as they 
do there will need to be little expense in the supervision of 
one’s task, and in industry we are beginning to discover that 
the money paid for supervision of a man’s task cannot be paid 
to him in wages. 

The Three Phase Aspect.—As Munsterberg has pointed 
out, there is a three phase aspect in every experience. There 
is the aspect of knowing, having information about the task 
so that we may readily associate all the important elements of 
our experience at the time of need. Do you have all the infor- 
mation that it is possible to get about your work? If not, 
then there is someone better equipped to take your place and 
somebody is going to take it. There is an opportunity for 
you to increase your capital stock, which is your ability to 
dispense service. You have ability to sell. The greater your 
ability the greater the return. Tests of various kinds may be 
applied to help you to discover just how much you know 
about the task, 


108 BRACTICAI ROY COG Crye 


Another aspect of experience, which has up to recent times 
been very largely overlooked, is that of feeling. ‘That raises 
the question of personal and social satisfaction which comes 
to the worker as the result of a well finished piece of work. 
Are you employing men and women? How much concern 
have you as to whether or not they are happy with the work? 
Are you employed by someone else? How much concern has 
your employer with regard to your social and personal satis- 
faction? Yet we know that one cannot succeed anywhere 
unless his best efforts are enlisted, and no one in modern life 
can succeed to the best unless he is able to enlist the efforts 
of other men to help him accomplish the things he has thot 
out, and men will never put their best efforts into anything that 
does not create a personal satisfaction. In industry we find 
a turnover of five times annually, that is, five times as many 
men have to be employed in the skilled operations in order 
to keep the working force intact. It has been estimated that 
it costs $40.00 every time a man is discharged and another 
employed. Some day thru the understanding of men as well 
as of processes, employers will come to understand that the 
working man himself has hopes, desires, and aspirations which 
he must be able to satisfy in the industry in which he is em- 
ployed or he will remain a liability to the industry. But in all 
too many cases while both employees and employers have 
hopes and desires and ambitions, neither one knows those of 
the other group. 

Andrew Carnegie said the way he was able to make his 
millions was not because he knew so much but because he 
could interest men who knew so much more than he did and 
then keep them interested while they worked for him. The 
touch of this very thing, a personal satisfaction, must come 
from the effort that you put into your work. 

There is also the aspect of doing, which again raises the 


THE WORLD OF ASSOCIATION 109 


question of skill and of experience. How much technical skill 
have your Are you a paper hanger? How good a one? 
Are you a preacher? How good a one are you? Are you 
an advertising man? How skilful? How well qualified to 
do or carry on the essentials of your vocation? 

These three things, the aspect of knowing, the aspect of 
feeling, the aspect of doing, are essential. The degree to which 
one measures up depends on how well and how widely he 
has learned to associate. 

In spite of all that has been said about tests, no one knows 
us quite so well as we know ourselves, or at least as it is pos- 
sible for us to know ourselves. Let us then, while ‘it is pos- 
sible, become so acquainted with ourselves that we know 
wherein we need special training and then get it. Let us form 
associations that have, as far as possible, a logical basis. If 
we are in industry, let us be able to associate the process in 
which we are engaged with all the processes of the department, 
and that department with all the other departments of the busi- 
ness. If we are teachers of arithmetic, let us be able to asso- 
ciate arithmetic with the entire field of mathematics. If we are 
students, let us continually seek for the discovery of relation- 
ships so that we may really make ourselves master of the field 
in which we seek to live. 


CHAPTER V 
MEMORY 


IN the preceding chapters we have considered the relation 
of the mind to the body, and how the raw material of sensa- 
tion is registered and interpreted, resulting in the percept. We 
have traced the processes thru to the establishment in the mind 
of the concept. We saw that there were certain centers in 
the brain that do not connect sensory and motor neurons; 
that they connect the great association centers which begin 
to develop in the normal child at about twelve years of age. 

You will realize upon a moment’s thot that sensations and 
sense-percepts confine us to the present, the here and now. 
With these only there would be no yesterday, no past, no his- 
tory, no biography. Without another quality of the mind the 
child could never become an adult in mentality. 

Memory.—Memory enables us to extend our mastery 
beyond the immediate present. All of our remembered past 
can be brought before us now. We live again the experiences 
of former years. We visit again the scenes of our childhood. 
We live again thru pleasant memories of other days. By 
means of memory the past is made available for present use. 
We remember the results of mistakes made in other days and 
that memory serves to prevent a repetition of the mistake. 
We learn by experience, but we would not were it not for 
memory and remembering. 

Memory and Remembering.—Memory is characteristic 


of all organic life and is a form of motor activity. It makes 
IIo 


MEMORY III 


its appearance far down in the field of biology and is found 
all the way upward. Horses; cows, cats, dogs have memories. 
All migratory birds as well as others have memories. We 
often find the birds returning from their southern homes and 
using again the nest of the former year. Instinct is organic 
memory. Remembering is a matter of personal consciousness. 
Memory and remembering release us from the slavery of the 
present. Remembering is a process of building up associations 
among our experiences which we wish to retain. 

Good Memory.—A good memory does not remember 
everything, but it should remember enough to be of service. 
It ought to be faithful in retaining, reproducing, recognizing, 
and replacing experiences. One cannot very well know every- 
thing, but each one should be able to remember the facts needed 
in his field. One should be able to remember all the essen- 
tials of his business or profession. He should not forget his 
social and home relations. He ought to remember to look 
after his health, not to forget about his intellectual develop- 
ment. A good memory ought to give one a fairly good com- 
mand of his past experiences, and relate them to the affairs 
of today so that he does not make unnecessary blunders. 

Poor Memory.—We frequently hear persons complain of 
a poor memory, but every memory is good at some things. 
One always remembers what he really wants to remember. 
We often “wish” we could remember but we do not really 
want to. How often when we hear a story told someone says, 
“T wish I could remember stories as he does” and then never 
think of the stories again until he hears someone telling a 
story and then he “wishes” he could remember. The poorest 
memory is good at some things. The merchant never forgets 
prices of his goods. The chemist remembers the formulas 
he uses. The physician does not forget his prescriptions. The 
musician remembers his music. The baseball ‘‘fan’ knows 


112 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 


and can tell instantly all the details of the records of his 
favorite players. JI never knew a young man to forget the 
address of his ‘‘sweetheart.”” We remember what we want 
to remember. 

Forgetting.—Memory is not like a photographic negative, 
unchangeable. It is more like a sieve. It lets many things thru. 
The intervening spaces are often filled in with what is common 
experience, or by what we judge or wish had happened. For- 
getting is of equal importance with remembering. If one re- 
membered and repeated every detail of an experience, he 
would often make himself a nuisance and a bore. James calls 
our attention to a selection in Jane Austen’s “Emma,” which 
illustrates the tediousness caused by the contiguity of a recital. 

“But where could you hear it?” cried Mrs. Bates. “Where could you 
possibly hear it, Mr. Knightley For it is not five minutes since I 
received Mrs. Cole’s note—no, it cannot be more than five—or at most 
ten—for I had got my bonnet and spencer on, just ready to come out— 
I was only gone down to speak to Patty again about the pork—Jane was 
standing in the passage—were you not, Jane?—for my mother was so 
afraid that we had not any salting-pan large enough. So I said I would 
go down and see, and Jane said ‘Shall I go down instead? for I think 


you have a little cold, and Patty had been washing the kitchen.’ ‘Oh, 
my dear,’ said I—well, and just then came the note.” 


Some brain records are like a phonograph record. When 
one begins the selection it plays straight on thru. It cannot 
make selections. It follows the chronological order. Logic 
has no place in its reactions. If one interrupts such a brain 
record, the process must be begun all over again and the 
whole performance repeated. A verbatim memory is, there- 
fore, often a very serious handicap. 

Such details make one very ineffective in mental reactions. 
Remembering should be selective, dropping out many non- 
essentials. It should give us a broad perspective, recall the 
mountain peaks of experience, and yet the ability to recall 
detail when needed is essential. One speaks of the railroad 


MEMORY Lis 


trip from New York City to Buffalo. I at once think of Pough- 
keepsie, Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, the larger 
cities on the line, but if further discussion ensues, I will think 
of the smaller stations between these larger ones until I will 
have recalled most of them. So a good memory omits many: 
of the details which on occasion it may readily recall. 

Basis of Memory.—Experience which can be recalled must 
be preserved somewhere. We have seen that sensory stimuli 
leave a more or less definite impression in the neurons of the 
brain. The neurons never forget an experience they have had. 
Every sense impression and every motor response leaves an 
impression somewhere. The power of the nervous system 
to respond to stimuli is the basis of memory. All functions 
of the nervous system are improved by repetition and if stimuli 
are repeated frequently enough there results a permanent 
change in the brain cells. Memory is due to the number and to 
the persistence of these brain paths. These paths are made 
thru exercise. It is like making a path thru the underbrush. 
The first time thru there are left a few broken and down- 
trodden bushes, but after several trips thru the brush a more 
or less well marked path results, and those who have occasion 
to go in that general direction will follow the path. It is easier 
and pleasanter. So the stimuli of the nerves take the paths of 
least resistance, and by the continued exercise of these cen- 
ters tend to make them permanent. The nervous system pre- 
serves a record of what has happened to it and tends, on 
being stimulated, to act as it has acted. 

Brain Change Permanent.—The brain is changed by 
these stimuli even tho the interpretations are forgotten. The 
neurons have been modified as a result of the impressions and 
so change future stimuli as they pass over the same path. 
These last impressions must mean something different than 
they would if they traversed a nerve and reached a neuron 


II4 RRACTICAIME SA CH OLG Gry, 


that had not been perviously stimulated. So the records of 
former stimuli by modifying the effect of later impressions 
will result in a different interpretation and so result in a 
change of conduct. Even tho one may forget a past ex- 
perience, the record is still there to color and influence action. 

Memories or Memory.—We have spoken of memory as 
tho it were one, but we do not have a memory. We have 
memories. The localization of function about ;which we 
studied earlier indicates that we do not have a memory, but 
many memories. As you recall, the association centers in 
the human brain occupy about two-thirds of the cortex. Defi- 
nite areas in the cortex perform special tasks. The stimuli 
effecting the nerves of sight leave a trace in the sight area. 
A later stimulus may lead to a recall or a remembering of the 
thing seen without disturbing any other nerve center. 

Stimuli effecting the nerves of hearing will produce, so 
to speak, another memory and so on. So there will be a 
memory of sight, a memory of hearing, a memory of taste, 
etc. In fact, there will be as many memories as there are cen- 
ters in the brain in which impressions are made. These 
memories are not all equally clear. Visual and auditory feel- 
ing are more easily recalled than are those of taste and smell. 
It is very difficult for one to remember the feeling of hunger 
or thirst. The emotions are difficult to recall because the dis- 
tinction between the actual emotion aroused when one is 
hungry and the ideal emotion aroused when he thinks of being 
hungry is not very pronounced. 

Types of Memory.—There are several distinct types of 
memory, such as, visual, auditive, muscular. The person with 
a visual memory always sees colors and forms. He must get 
a good look at whatever he wishes to remember and when he 
recalls a circumstance, he sees each element. Someone refers 
to a selection in the old school reader. This person says, “I 


MEMORY 115 


remember that selection. It began on page 100 near the bot- 
tom of the left hand page and ran down thru the next page 
and finished at the top of page 102.’’ Such a person seldom 
sees motion in a scene remembered. He sees the morning 
train on its way to the city, but as he thinks of it, it is 
not moving but is like a “painted train’? seen against the 
landscape. 

One with an auditive memory does not remember so well. 
how a thing or person looks but he remembers sounds. He 
cannot recall the details of facial expression of his friends, 
but he can recall the sound of the voices so distinctly that 
often he can go to the piano and touch the key that corre- 
sponds to the pitch of a friend’s voice. 

The one with a muscular type of memory sees and remem- 
bers motions. He will see in his mind’s eye the morning 
train gliding along in the distance on its way to the city, but 
will not be sure whether it has six or seven cars. Such a 
person is interested in movements. He enjoys sleight-of- 
hand exhibitions and often sees more of the intricate move- 
ments of the performer than any of those who are eye-minded 
or ear-minded. 

Retention.—In order that one may have a memory of any- 
thing there must be retained in the brain the effects of an 
experience. Without retention there could be no possibility of 
remembering. One cannot recall what is not there. But 
memory does not deal with raw material of experience, but 
with the relations of retained ideas. In order that retention 
may be made as permanent as possible, one should see that the 
impression is strong. The artist will visualize a subject at 
one sitting. Most of us would need a dozen and then per- 
haps could not tell the color of the eyes of the subject. 

Deep impression is essential for retention. The impres- 
_ sion made upon us by words is often more lasting than seeing 


116 PRACTICABVR SY GH G@lOGY 


the object itself. The impression made by the simplest flower 
upon Wordsworth was probably more lasting than that of the 
most gorgeous or most delicate upon most people. He says, 


To me the meanest flower that grows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. 


There was a deep impression, and a lasting one. Most of 
us are more impressed with his words than by the “meanest 
flower that grows.” 

Recall.—lIf the mind retains and nothing more the material 
retained would be of no use. It must be where we can get at 
it. One must be able to recall, bring again into consciousness 
that which has been stored away in the recesses of the mind. 
Often we know we have certain things in the mind, yet we 
cannot get hold of them. Recalling is not like the power to 
run, to lift, to see. It does not come at the command of the 
will. It is more like a combination lock. One may want ever 
so much to get into the safe. He may rattle the door and gO 
thru all sorts of antics, but the door does not open until some- 
one works the combination according to the “set.’’ One must 
get hold of the right combination, or association in order to 
get into the mind and find the fact wanted. 

Recognition.—The image must not only be recalled but it 
must be recognized. There must be a feeling that this has 
occurred or been seen before. It must be recognized as part 
of my past. There must be a feeling of familiarity, or at least 
a feeling of the absence of strangeness. This is indicated by 
feeling at ease when the image appears. 

Replace.—The image must be retained, recalled, recog- 
nized, and replaced before the act of remembering is com- 
plete. One must know the circumstances under which the 
experience appeared. He must be able to live the incident 
over again, must see the original setting. 


MEMORY Puy 


We often find ourselves with an image in mind and are 
at a loss to replace it. Or we meet a person and are sure we 
have an image of the person correctly in mind, but we can- 
not tell where we have previously seen him. The mind will 
keep on trying to replace the former experience and often when 
we least expect it, the matter is cleared up and we are at ease 
about the matter. 

About four years ago I was introduced to a man in New 
York. I remarked that I was sure I had seen him before, 
but he had no recollection of having ever seen me. The matter 
rather bothered me for two or three days. Every little while 
the question of where I had seen him would come into my 
mind. One evening three or four days after being introduced 
to him I was riding downtown in the elevated train. I was 
reading a newspaper at the time when suddenly I saw in my 
mind a little railroad station in the south of France and a 
number of passengers waiting, and there among them I saw 
this man and two elderly ladies with him. The next time I 
saw him I asked him if he were not in the south of France in 
the early part of the Great War. He replied that he was, and 
remembered being at the station where I had seen him, altho 
he had not seen me at the time. When we come to deal more 
definitely with the subconsciousness we shall see more clearly 
how the replacing occurred. 

Intensity.—One of the factors on which permanence of 
the impression depends is intensity, or vividness. If the inci- 
dent arouses a large degree of interest and attention, the im- 
pression will be well fixed. Feelings have a great deal to do 
with the intensity. Anger, fear, stage fright, etc., make such 
an impression upon us that we can never forget them and at 
the same time prevent almost everything else from making any 
impression at all upon us. The reason we cannot remember 
things that happen when we are frightened is because the 


118 PRAC ICN ie sty el Oya) Cove 


mind is not directed to remembering them but is directed 
toward something that prevents the recording of the 
impressions. 

In this connection we may note that interest always give 
certain impressions the advantage. They get a right-of-way 
over the ones in which there is less interest. We may be lis- 
tening to a speaker and presently he mentions something that 
has to do with a subject in which we have a special interest. 
We remember just what he says about that point but often we 
forget the rest of the address. Or we are interested in the 
general trend of the argument. We want to see where he is 
coming out. So because of our interest in that we follow 
the main line and pay no attention to the details, and so of 
course, straightway forget them. 

We remember certain items or points of an address and 
forget the connection in which they were employed. We 
often remember the stories told by a speaker and forget the 
points they were intended to illustrate. 

Recency.—Another element in the process that is impor- 
tant is the recency of the experience. Other things being 
equal one remembers what happened this morning, or what 
happened a week ago better than he remembers what hap- 
pened several years ago. It is in recognition of this that we 
cram the mind full of facts just before an examination. <A 
little later we shall see that the principle of recency can be 
very much abused. 

Frequency.—The oftener an experience is repeated the 
more permanently it will become fixed in the mind. The 
neuron paths become definitely marked out, and associations 
clearly fixed. The recognition of this principle leads the 
teacher to plan for regular reviews, and also indicates that if 
we wish to remember a thing we must repeat, or recall fre- 
quently until the matter is definitely and permanently fixed. 


MEMORY 119 


Primacy.—There is another thing that we ought not to 
overlook in this connection and that is that first impressions 
are lasting. The first experience, the first view, the first visit 
to the city, the first of anything makes a very lasting impres- 
sion upon the mind of the individual. Because of this special 
pains should be taken to get the right thing, the right method, 
the right approach the first time. 

The conservation of impression depends, other things being 
equal, upon the intensity, recency, frequency, and primacy of 
the experience. 

Time Required.—We have already come to see that to 
make the impressions in the neurons permanent requires time, 
but we have not inquired about the length of time required. 
Many experiments in memory testing have been made and the 
time recorded. Ebbinghaus conducted a series of experi- 
ments along this line years ago and many others have since, 
all with about the same results. Ebbinghaus found that to 
remember seven disconnected words required only one reading. 
To remember twelve disconnected words required sixteen read- 
ings. To remember twenty-four such words required forty- 
four readings. That is, as the number of things to be remem- 
bered is presented in larger groups the number of repetitions 
is still more increased. 

Ebbinghaus found that the ability of the brain to retain 
these impressions was gradually reduced as time passed. He 
found that having become able to repeat the disconnected words 
once and so having them clearly in memory, he could after 
one hour repeat only one-half of the words. After eight hours 
he could repeat only one-third of them, and after a month had 
passed, he could repeat only one-fifth of the disconnected 
words. ‘This seems quite in accordance with what we might 
expect. A time exposure makes a better picture than a snap 
shot, but the permanence of both pictures depends upon the 


120 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


length of time they are in the fixing bath. One cannot make 
a good picture from an under exposed or an under developed 
negative. 

False Memory.—We all have what we may call false 
memories. This is particularly true with regard to childhood 
memories. It is not unusual for parents to recite accounts of 
incidents in which the child was concerned until in after years 
the person firmly believes that he remembers the incident of 
his childhood when in reality he remembers only what has been 
told him about it. This is a false memory of the incident. 

This is true also of.many other experiences. As already 
noted there is always the tendency to think of the incident as 
it seems it ought to have happened, or as it seems it must have 
happened, or as we wish it had happened and then for us to 
remember it that way instead of remembering it as it actually 
occurred. We notice this particularly where our friends are 
concerned. We look for extenuating circumstances and finally 
remember the incident with the extenuating circumstances as 
an essential part of the incident. 

Short Memories.—Short memories are an advantage un- 
der some circumstances. To the traveler with a short memory 
old scenes are always new. The trip never becomes monoto- 
nous. While the one with an accurate memory sees way ahead 
thru his mind’s eye and waits patiently for the end of the jour- 
ney, his companion sees something new at every turn of the 
road. But the one with a short memory is unable to idealize 
the scenes, and does not anticipate the beauties and pleasures 
of the journey as the one who has a clear memory. Most of 
us have longer memories than we think. None grow so old 
or so forgetful as ““Not to remember where he hid his gold.” 

Children’s Memories.—It is quite commonly supposed that 
children have much better memories than adults. We often 
hear persons remark that they wish they could remember as 


MEMORY I2I 


they could when they were children. This is a mere suppo- 
sition. The normal adult has a much better memory than the 
normal child. Of course the child’s mind is less occupied than 
that of the adult. It is to his advantage to learn. His curi- 
osity is greater. While the adult has acquired a fairly good 
stock of memory material and often becomes quite satisfied 
with it, this does not mean that he cannot remember. It simply 
means that in many cases he does not remember. The adult 
has a better memory than the child because he has greater 
power of concentration. He has a much wider knowledge, and 
greater wealth of associations. He has a great many more 
mental pegs to hang things on. The will to learn and to re- 
member is a most important factor, but even here the adult 
has the advantage. The adult remembers the things that 
vitally concern him more easily than the child does those that 
so vitally concern him. 

Memory Systems.—My students always ask about mem- 
ory systems and the value of them. My first criticism of 
memory systems is the over emphasis they make upon the 
place of the memory. The same criticism can justly be made 
by those who have systems to sell for the training of any other 
power of the mind. One man with a system to sell would 
make you believe that concentration is the great essential. If 
you buy his system your troubles will all be over. You will 
concentrate like the author of the system. Another lays all 
his emphasis upon the training of the will. You need his sys- 
tem to properly train your will, and so it goes. 

Another criticism of those systems is the fact that almost 
without exception the associations are as illogical and far- 
fetched as they can well be. There is so much scaffolding that 
one cannot see the building. Why should I remember a dozen 
things that have no connection with the thing I want to remem- 


Tee, PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


ber and then after that still have to remember the thing itself. 
Why not remember the thing from the outset? 

There is one advantage in buying a memory training sys- 
tem. Where one’s money is there his heart is also. It arouses 
interest and attention, and as a result of this greater effort 
results. The same amount of effort spent in discovering valid 
relations and logical associations would produce much better 
results. 

Memory training systems simply provide crutches. Crutches 
are for cripples. The system never enables you to throw away 
the crutches. If one is a mental cripple he may need crutches, 
but if he is normal he does not need them. 

One of the best systems that has been produced is Loi- 
sette’s. It was at first sold for $50.00 and a pledge of secrecy. 
Today it can be bought for 50 cents and nobody wants it. 
Much better than ‘‘memory system’ is an understanding of the 
fundamental principles of mental operation, and an application 
of those principles in practise whether it is memory, will, 
concentration, or what not. 

Intend to Remember.—The first essential toward fixing 
anything in memory is the intention to remember it, and make 
that intention habitual. So often we express the wish to re- 
member and yet make no effort to do so. One cannot remem- 
ber the common occurrences of life without giving them a sec- 
ond thot. Make up your mind that you will remember this 
or that particular thing and then remember it. You surely 
will not remember it if you do not decide to do so, except it 
be an unusual experience. That is, you must charge your 
memory with the task of preserving the impression, and trust 
your memory to do it. This implies close enough attention 
to fix the impression in the cortex of the brain. The material 
to be remembered should be organized into topics and sub- 
topics that form the best associations. 


MEMORY 128 


Be Interested.—You must have an interest in what you 
wish to remember. You cannot be happy and not like the 
thing you have to do. Happiness depends upon your dis- 
covering an interest in the task, or quitting the task. You do 
not find an interest in your work? Interest is based upon 
knowledge. Do you know every element in the procedure of 
your work. Have you made yourself familiar with all the 
relationships involved? If you do not have knowledge, you 
will not have interest, and without interest you will not remem- 
ber. Every fact has a place. Find that place and remember it. 
Memory must be supported by intelligence. 

Association.—To be able to recall well one must establish 
close connection between what he wishes to recall and some- 
thing that he often thinks of. The doctor tells the patient to 
take the medicine “just before meals,’ assuming that the 
patient will not forget meal-time, but the patient must ‘“‘charge’”’ 
his mind with the relationship or he will eat his meals as usual 
and forget to take the medicine. 

In order to have a good memory one must associate a fact 
with as many other facts as possible. All memory improve- 
ment rests upon the increasing elaboration of associations. 
No amount of general culture will increase one’s power of 
memory. One must bring the connection between facts clearly 
into consciousness. The more we know of any subject, the 
more easily we remember facts connected with it. It is rather 
dificult for one who has never studied algebra to remember 
the binomial theorem, and for one who has never studied trigo- 
nometry to remember the formula for the sin’%ZA. The reason 
1s that the formula does not “mean” anything to him. The 
pedagogical principle “From the known to the related un- 
unknown” has its basis here. The more one’s knowledge is 
systematized, the more clearly the relations are seen, the more 
likely one is to remember. The botanist knows and remembers 


124 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


thousands of plants because he sees relationships. The more all 
details fit together, the less effort is required to remember them 
as details. We saw this to be true when we studied systems of 
concepts. 

Ability to Recall.—Perseverance in recalling is a vir- 
tue. One needs the instincts of a detective when he searches 
for clues in the mind. He must get into the habit of searching 
thru his mind for the clues that will lead to the desired impres- 
sion. One may order the brain to call up the fact and then go 
about his usual affairs. By and bye the subconsciousness will 
produce it, just as a file clerk will bring a letter which has been 
called for. The subconscious action of the mind is the “silent 
partner” in the business of conducting mental operations. 

Repetition and Review.—If one wants a good memory, 
he must not leave it to chance but give it careful attention by 
seeing that it has fair chance to handle the materials that we 
want preserved. One should review often. Practise makes per- 
fect. What are you practising? Are you practising remem- 
bering or are you practising regretting that you cannot 
remember ? | 

One must forget and relearn several times before he is 
master of any subject. It has been determined that in the 
matter of reviews, it is better to recall than to reread the matter 
to be remembered, that is, it is better to recall the image than 
it is to get a new impression. It is better to think over what 
is to be remembered than it is to read it over. In reviewing 
appeal to more than one sense if possible. For this reason it 
is a good plan to take notes even tho you never look at them 
afterwards. The very fact of writing makes a double impres- 
sion. It secures cooperation of arm and hand as well as eyes. 
Make notes on every book you read and make notes as you 
review. Do this with your psychology. Review the chapter 
by thinking it over. Do not reread until you find you have lost 


MEMORY 125 


the connection. In reviewing, fifteen minutes a day is better 
than one hundred and five minutes once a week, and yet one 
must not make the period so short that he does not have time 
to get into the spirit of the matter. Some minds require much 
more time than others for this. Find out for yourself what is 
best for you and then act in accordance with that information. 
Remember the first repetition contributes more toward the 
establishing of associations than any later repetition. 

Repetition reduces resistance. Long periods produce 
fatigue. One should not attempt to commit to memory when 
fatigued, neither should he review. At such times the interest 
lags, and the attention is easily diverted into other channels, 
and this tends to break up the former associations. 

One should give attention to keeping the brain in fine con- 
dition by keeping the blood pure. This will come about thru 
proper food, drink, rest, and recreation. Low vitality impairs 
mental activity. 

Exercising Memory.—FExercising the memory for one 
thing does not improve it for other things. Exercising the arm 
does not strengthen the leg. One may remember faces but not 
names. He may remember telephone numbers and not street 
addresses. If you have difficulty in remembering names, or 
associating names with faces, take particular pains when you 
are introduced to a person to hear his name correctly, and pro- 
_ nounce it at the time. Think how it is spelled. If you have a 
card in your pocket, take the first opportunity to write the 
name, look at it once, think how it sounds, throw the card 
away, and remember the name and the face that belongs with 
it. Remember, a rule is of no use unless applied. 

Concrete Imagery.—Try to visualize every thing that can 
be visualized. See in pictures. If you want to remember a list 
of words, find some relation between two words that stand next 
to each other. The shortest association, of course, is between 


126 PRAGCTIG Aas CH OLOGY 


two adjoining words in the list. Position may be the only 
element that holds them together in the mind, but make the 
most of that. Name the list of words. Write a sentence with 
the word you wish to remember. 

' Ideas before Words.—Try to see in pictures. Then grasp 
the ideas indicated in the pictures. After that learn the words. 
A good rule to follow in committing any selection is as follows: 


I. Read the selection thru. 

2. See the pictures in the order in which they occur. 

3. Discover the most logical connections between the suc- 
cessive pictures. 

4. Tell the story in your own words. 

5. Lhen learn the author’s words. 


I often use Bryant’s “Ode to a Waterfowl” to illustrate the 
method of learning a poem. The method works equally well 
for prose. The poem follows: 


DOO AW AL ERO Wile 


Whither, midst falling dew, 
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 
Thy solitary way? 


Vainly the fowler’s eye 
_ Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, 
As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, 
Thy figure floats along. 


Seek’st thou the plashy brink 
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, 
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink 
On the chafed ocean-side? 


There is a Power whose care 
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast— 
The desert and illimitable air— 

Lone wandering, but not lost. 


All day thy wings have fanned, 
At that far height, the cold, thin, atmosphere, 


MEMORY 127 
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, 
Though the dark night is near. 


And soon that toil shall end; 
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, 
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend, 
Soon, o’er thy sheltered nest. 


Thou’rt gone, the abyss of heaven 
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart 
Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given, 
And shall not soon depart. 


He who, from zone to zone, 
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone, 

Will lead my steps aright. 

We begin by reading the entire poem thru, and then discuss 
the order of the pictures presented. The scene is laid at the 
close of day. The poet and the waterfowl are the centers of 
interest for us. No one else intrudes upon the scene. The poet 
asks some questions, makes some observations, and reflects 
upon the whole situation. 

He sees the waterfowl flying high in the air just at the 
close of day. He thinks what a fine shot that would make for 
a hunter, but no, the bird is too far away. He wonders where 
the bird is going, whether to some inland lake, some river 
bank, or to the seashore. But wherever she is going there is a 
power that directs the course. He muses on the fact that all 
day long the bird has flown and not stopped to rest, and re- 
marks that soon she will find a home among others of her kind, 
build her nest, and rear her young. After thus musing, he 
looks again and the bird is lost to sight. Then he tells us of 
the lesson he has learned. 

Now we have the series of pictures and the poet’s reflections 
fairly well in mind. Let us read the poem to get the author’s 
language. Let us note the second stanza: 


Vainly the fowler’s eye 
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, 
As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, 

Thy figure floats along. 


128 PRACTICAL RE Sy CHOLOGY. 


Almost without exception students will use the word 
“harm” in place of “wrong,” but once having had their atten- 
tion called to the word “wrong” and the poet’s use of it to 
rhyme with “along,” they will never again make the error. 

We notice another peculiar use, or at least a use that we 
would not usually make. It is in the third stanza: 


Or where the rising billows rise and sink (fall) 
On the chafed ocean-side. 


In the next to the last stanza is a transposition that we are 
apt to overlook. ‘The poet says: 


... on my heart 
Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given. 


The direct order is of course: 
deeply on my heart 
Has sunk the lesson thou hast given. 

Having gotten these peculiar uses of words by the author 
in mind, we are now ina position to commit the poem to mem- 
ory exactly as it stands. Every time we go over it we go clear 
thru so as to get the series of pictures and reflections com- 
pletely in mind. It is surprising how few repetitions are neces- 
sary to enable 50 percent of a class to repeat the entire poem 
without a mistake. I mean it is surprising to those who are not 
familiar with what tasks the memory will deal with success- 
fully. Having become able to repeat the poem correctly once 
thru, if we will repeat it once a day for a week, and then once 
a month for three months, we can, at almost a moment’s notice 
repeat it a year after the last repetition. We had our interest 
aroused, our attention directed, and made up our minds to 
learn the poem, and the rest was easy. 

The same approach does equally well for other things. I 
have described an imaginary journey to classes of from go to 
too men and women. The description running to fifteen hun- 


MEMORY 129 


dred or two thousand words, and have found that fully half of 
the group could stand before the class and repeat the entire 
journey almost word for word and do it as soon as I finished 
the description. 

I have found men and women both very much surprised to 
know they could repeat the journey. They thot they had poor 
memories. We do not know how much our memories can 
do for us until we give them a good trial. I recall meeting 
thirty-seven young men one evening. They had been assem- 
bled for a particular purpose. While we were waiting for one 
or two others to arrive, it was suggested that we have a stunt 
or two. I was asked to suggest one. Upon inquiry I found 
that there were only two in the group who knew each other. 
All of the others were strangers to everyone else there. I did 
not know the names of more than six of them. I suggested 
that we get acquainted and at the same time have a little mem- 
ory drill. I inquired for the ones who found it easy to remem- 
ber names and faces, and finally settled upon one who had 
difficulty in remembering names. 

I told him I would introduce him to every other person 
present if he would introduce me to them when I had finished. 
He said he could not remember the names of a half a dozen of 
them. But I persuaded him to try. I introduced him to each 
one. I had to ask the names of nearly all, so the young man 
heard the names spoken twice, once when I inquired for it and 
again when I introduced the person to him. As I introduced 
each I asked the young man to remember the name and the 
face to which it belonged, and to associate them both with 
something about the individual. It took about ten or twelve 
minutes to introduce him to the thirty-six. We went immedi- 
ately to the other end of the line and he began introducing them 
tome. He made only one error in the thirty-six introductions. 
_ He was the most surprised one among the thirty-seven when 


130 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


he had finished. We can remember anything we want to 
remember. If that young man had cared about remembering 
permanently the names of the others and had rehearsed the 
names and faces frequently, he would have had no trouble with 
them. I presume he forgot them before the next night, because 
he had no interest in remembering them after the stunt was 
finished; but if he had been offered $50.00 to recite the names 
the next night, he would not have forgotten them. 

That was association by contiguity. There is little about 
a man to indicate that his name is Smith. You just have to 
remember it, or forget it.. The same method applies to remem- 
bering figures. I have written a row of as many as thirty- 
seven figures on the blackboard and then gone over them with 
the class calling their attention to the figures one by one. 
When I had finished 20 percent of the members of the class 
could name the figures correctly, forwards or backwards, begin 
at the middle and go forwards and backwards alternately. 

Here is a list I happen to have that was copied from the 
board in one of the classes by a stenographer I had present. It 
contains only 19 figures. There were over 150 persons in that 
class. I give the stenographic report in order that you may 
see just how I presented the matter: 

If I were to write a row of figures across the blackboard and go over 
the figures carefully fully half of those present can write the figures on 
the board again correctly. You look as tho you doubted it, so I will 
show you. 

I am writing this row of figures without paying any attention to 
them. Even if I did, it would not help you any. Those of you who 
cannot see the blackboard will remember the figures from hearing me 
name them. Those who can see will get two impressions, one thru the 
the ear and the other thru the eye. 

I want you to see that the power of association is going to tie these 
figures together in your mind just as you tie together the name and 
face of a person. 

Let us look at the figures. There are nineteen of them. We shall 
see them in groups of three or fewer. I will call your attention to them 
so that you will not overlook any of them. The first one is 3. The next, 


8. Those two make 38. The third figure is 7, making with the others 
387. The figure following 7 is 4. They make 74, and with the 8, 874. 


MEMORY 131 


After the 4 comes 6. That is 46,—746. The next is 8—68, or 468. Now 
if you want to look back you see we have 387468. After the 8 we find 
3—83. Before the 8 is a 6. We cannot overlook that—683. Following 
the 3 is 5—35, or 835. Then we have 4—54—354. Then 9,—49—549. 
0 90—490. 7—07—907. Then 6—76—076. 3—63—763. The next is 
2—32— 632. Then—28—328. 5—85—285. Then follows 7—57—857. 7— 
57—857. Following the 7 is 2—72—572 and the last. 

How many have written the figures? Let me see the hands? Now, 
I am going to erase the figures and ask you to rewrite them on the board. 
There were more than a dozen who stood with eyes closed and named 
the 19 figures in the exact order in which I had written them. Several 
with eyes closed named the middle figure, the second at the right of it, 
the third at the left, etc. 


They had no trouble in naming the figures backwards as well 
as forwards. All I did in the matter was to fix the attention 
and arouse the interest. I helped them to associate the figures 
in groups of three, recognizing that each figure would call up 
the one following it, and the one preceding it unless itself was 
the first or last. The figures written on the board in this 
instance were, of course, 38746835490763285 72. 

Subconscious Impressions.—We have noted that subcon- 
scious memory retains perceptions and their attendant effects 
but does not recognize them. We may also state that many 
impressions are made of which we are entirely unconscious. 
Cases are on record of persons who while delirious have re- 
peated quite lengthy discourses, more or less connected of 
which while in their normal minds they knew nothing. It 1s 
Coleridge, I think, who tells of a servant who when ill with a 
delirium repeated a considerable amount of what later proved 
to be selections from some Hebrew literature. It later devel- 
oped that years before this servant had been employed in the 
home of a rabbi whose habit it was to read aloud as he walked 
forth and back past the door where the servant was engaged. 
Unconsciously this material had become registered in the brain 
of the servant. In the normal state of the mind the servant 
could not recall any of the material which had been given so 
correctly in delirium. 


132 PRACTICAL RSY GHOLOGY 


Dormant Memories.—Not only do the memories of im- 
pressions lie dormant in the mind for years but muscular mem- 
ories may also. The muscles learn lessons and remember them 
as well as the neurons of the brain. This is the basis of habit. 
For ten years previous to nineteen years ago I rode a bicycle a 
great deal but have not ridden for the past seventeen years at 
all. About two years ago, I had occasion while on vacation to 
go up town in the village where we were spending a part of 
our vacation. A bicycle stood by the side of the house and one 
of the persons suggested that I go on the wheel. The idea 
interested me. I wondered if I could ride after seventeen 
years’ intermission. So I took the wheel and to my surprise 
and delight I rode as easily and naturally as I did the last time 
I rode. The muscles had remembered all those years. 

It is told of Houdin, the magician, that while he was “‘in 
practise’ he could keep four balls in the air at once, and that 
after an interval of thirty years during which time he had 
never tossed a ball, he was able on the first trial to keep three 
balls in the air. 

Muscular memories center in the nervous system, and are 
dependent upon the cortex. Ideas and the emotions caused by 
them, and the attendant muscular activity become associated in 
complexes. The idea arising in consciousness tends to arouse 
the muscular memory. It makes the muscles tingle. They 
seem to want to perform the function which the idea has 
recalled. 

Limit of Memory Development.—No one ever reaches 
the limit of his memory development. One never gets too old 
to remember. Your memory will improve until your mental 
powers begin to decline, and then it will still retain impres- 
sions, if you will give it half a chance. The difficulty with 
most persons is that they inhibit the power to remember by 
telling themselves that they cannot remember. When one 


MEMORY 133 


comes to believe that he cannot remember, he will not remem- 
ber. On the other hand, if he is determined to remember he 
will find a released energy that will serve him well in the field 
of recall. De Quincey sums the matter up when he says, ‘““The 
memory strengthens as you lay burdens upon it and becomes 
trustworthy just as you trust it.’ There is no way to improve 
memory or muscle except thru exercise. 

Material for Imagination.—Just as sensations furnish 
material for perception, perception for concepts, concepts for 
judgment, so memory by retaining, recalling, reproducing, and 
replacing experiences furnishes material for the imagination. 
The only material that the imagination can use is what has 
already entered into one’s experience. Some of the experi- 
ences may be recorded in the subconsciousness. Such material 
may affect action, but it does not enter into the work of the 
imagination. One’s entire supply of imaginative material is 
furnished by the memory, hence, the importance of many and 
varied memories. 


CHAPTER T 
IMAGINATION 


WE have considered the sense-perceptive processes, or, as 
they are sometimes called, the perceptual processes, and have 
learned that the product*of that reaction is called a percept. 
We have also studied a phase of the process of intellection, 
which process gives us the concept and the judgment. We 
have noted that these processes do not always follow one after 
the other, but have seen that in some instances one process runs 
thru several others. Judging, for instance, is not confined 
entirely to the comparing of concepts, but manifests itself in 
comparing percepts, altho it does not reach its highest form 
until it deals with concepts. So too, we saw, is the case with 
association. It runs all thru the intellectual processes, group- 
ing percepts and concepts alike. 

In the last chapter we studied memory and how it conserves 
and reproduces the results of former experiences. We noted 
that memory gives us free range over all the remembered past 
and can bring it into consciousness beside the experiences of 
the present and so enlarges our world vastly beyond what the 
perceptive process alone can do. 

We are, in this chapter, to consider another phase of the 
mind which enlarges our freedom by enabling us to bring all 
of the anticipated future into the present, here and now. The 
chain with which, so to speak, we found ourselves bound by 
the perceptive processes which confines us to the present 1s 
lengthened thru memory to enable us to bring all the remem- 

134 


IMAGINATION 135 


bered past, and thru the imagination to bring all of the antici- 
pated future and link them both with the present, and enable 
us thru a proper interpretation of the past and present to throw 
some light on the future. 

Memory.—Memory refers always to definite past experi- 
ence, That experience is fixed, and unchangeable, and memory 
must follow the lines of that experience. When we remember 
a thing we identify it with our past. We have a feeling that it 
was as memory pictures it to be. Yet memory never gives us 
as definite impressions as sense-percepts do. There is a hazi- 
ness and an indefiniteness which we did not feel in the presence 
of the object. 

Imagination.—Imagination is the name given to the pro- 
cess of image making. It is the ability of the mind to form 
an idea of things not present. By means of the imagination 
one is able to respond without external stimuli to an object not 
actually present. One may have in mind the scenes of yester- 
day, of last week, of his childhood days. These are revived 
perceptual experiences and, of course, presuppose memory. 

Images.—When one looks in a mirror he sees what is 
called an image. When he looks thru a microscope, a tele- 
scope, or a spectroscope he sees an image. These images may 
be virtual or real, larger, smaller, or the same size as the 
object depending upon the kind of lens or mirror. In these 
instances the object and image are both present, but when we 
speak of an image as a psychological product, we have in mind 
a different thing. We mean an ideal representation of a thing 
that we have at some other time seen, felt, heard, smelled, or 
tasted, and that is not present now. 

Kinds of Images.—When we speak of images, we often 
think only of images of things seen but of course a moment’s 
thot will make it clear that one may have images of other expe- 
riences than those of sight. One may have a visual image of 


136 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


how an automobile looks. He may have an auditory image of 
how “Misereri’’ sounds; how limburger cheese smells, how 
vinegar tastes, and how it feels to have a worm crawl down his 
neck. These are all images. 

Dalton’s Questions.—In making a study of imagination 
and of images Dalton asked three general questions about them 
which may help us to get a little clearer notion of how we may 
test our own images. His questions are: 


1. Illumination. Is the image dim or fairly clear? Is its 
brightness comparable to the actual scene? 

2. Definition. Are all objects well defined at the same 
time? Or is the place of sharpest definition at any 
moment more contracted than the real scene? 

3. Coloring. Are the colors of all objects quite distinct 
and natural? 


In making these tests a wide variation will be found in 
regard to the answers of each person. He may have clear 
images of the colors, but not a very well defined outline of the 
objects. The outline may be somewhat dim, or he may have 
well defined outlines of the objects, but not a good image of 
the coloring, etc. 

There will be found a wide variation among the persons 
whose images are tested. Some will have good images of color 
but not of form. Others will have good images of the objects 
from the viewpoint of distinctness, etc. 

What is your ability to form images? Try to form images 
of the following list and try to discover in which you are best. 
In which are you poorest? 

Color.—Can you close your eyes and “‘see”’ the color of the 
carpet on the floor of your room? You will need to be careful 
to be sure that you see the image. You may know what the 
colors are and so confuse your knowledge with your image or 


IMAGINATION 137 


put it in place of the image. Can you see the color of the wall- 
paper on the walls of your room? Can you see the colors of 
the pictures that hang on the walls? What colors do you find 
difficulty in imaging? 

Sound.—Can you actually hear the music, the air of your 
favorite song? Can you hear your mother’s voice? Can you 
hear the horn of an automobile? Can you hear the air of a 
musical selection played on a cornet? On a violin? Ona 
piano? I mean can you form an image of each of these? 
What one do you have difficulty in imaging? 

Taste-—Can you imagine how coffee tastes? Sugar? Can 
you form an image of the taste of aloes? Of a porter house 
steak? Can you imagine just how peanuts taste? An orange? 
A grape fruit? Do you find more difficulty in forming images 
of taste than of the two senses just named? Why do you 
suppose that is? 

Smell_—Try to form an image of the odor of roses. Can 
you form an accurate image of the odor of limburger cheese? 
What kind of a face do you make up when you form the 
image? How do you account for it? Can you imagine just 
how a skunk, or skunk cabbage smells? Can you smell hot 
soapsuds? Do you think you form images of odors as readily 
and as clearly as you do of tastes, or flavors? 

Feeling—Can you form an image of the feeling when 
lightly rubbing your fingers over a well polished table? Do 
you form an image of how it feels to rub your fingers on a 
piece of silk? Can you image the feeling you would have in 
drawing your thumb along the edge of a razor? Many per- 
sons on trying to image this last feeling, find that it makes a 
shiver run down their backs. Why should it? 

Motion.—Can you actually see in your mind’s eye a train 
in motion, or do you see it standing still even tho you know it 
is moving? Can you form an image of the flag waving in the 


138 PRACTICALRES VC bh GLUOGY 


breeze, or does it look like a painted flag showing the folds but 
having no motion? Can you form an image of an airplane 
moving thru the air? Do you find it easier to image the air- 
plane than to image the train? Many persons do. Why? 

Form.—Can you see the actual form of the table in your 
dining room? Do not confuse your knowledge of it with your 
image but try to actually see it. Can you see the design of 
the carpet on the floor and not see the color at all? It is inter- 
esting to know how many persons can see the design who can- 
not see the colors at all and vice versa. Can you form an 
image of your friend’s face, an image that gives all the detail? 
Can you describe that image so that one who does not know 
your friend can pick him out of a dozen or twenty of about 
his age and general appearance? I talked with a man recently 
who told me that he could not see his most intimate friend’s 
face clearly enough to see whether he wore a mustache or not. 
He said he knew his friend did not wear a mustache, but he 
could not form an image clearly enough to see his face. 

Number.—Can you form an image of a room with a dozen 
persons in it and close your eyes and see where each one sits 
and identify the person in each place? Can you form an image 
of a baseball field and imagine the players in their places on 
the field and the opponents on their bench? Can you see the 
plays as they are made? 

Heat.—Can you form an image of the temperature of 
warm water? Can you imagine how it feels to be burned with 
hot water? How does it differ from an image of being burned 
with acid? 

Cold.—Can you imagine how it feels to step your bare feet 
on a cold, tile floor? Does it make you shiver? Did you ever 
touch your tongue to a frosty metal doorknob? Can you form 
an image of the feeling you experienced? 


IMAGINATION 139 


Can you imagine your feeling as you try to find your way 
thru the house in the dark? 

I have called your attention to so many of these because 
the imagination uses the same material that the memory does. 
It must turn back to the perceptual for its building supplies. 
If you find that you are able to form accurate images in one or 
several of the above group of sensations, you have a clue to 
your ability and to the field of activity into which you can put 
your efforts with hope of success. If you find that you are 
unable to form the proper images in one or more of the groups, 
you have a clue as to what you ought to keep out of. If you 
find that you cannot visualize colors well, you would hardly 
expect to succeed in a line of activity where colors play a large 
part, because you would be obliged to make all kinds of com- 
binations of colors. If you could not image the combinations 
clearly, you would be badly handicapped, and placed at a disad- 
vantage with the one who could. You would find it necessary 
to exert vastly more energy than he to succeed as well as he. 
You will do better in some line where you are not handicapped. 

Observational Material—Since imagination is confined 
to the material provided by sensation and perception, we see 
again how important it is that the mind be well stored with 
observational material. We ought always to be on the lookout 
for obtaining an increasing supply. 

Imagination and Remembering.—Remembering must al- 
ways follow the lines of experience and if it is accurate it 
retains all the details like the photographic negative. While 
imagination is not an accurate image of the experience. It is 
more like a retouched negative, or more likely like the oil por- 
trait in which the features are idealized and certain characteris- 
tics made to stand out more prominently than the others. No 
portrait looks just like the person it is intended to portray. 
This reminds me of the wife who went with her husband to 


140 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


have his picture taken. When she received the proofs she was 
very much wrought up. She went to the photographer and 
told him she would not take the pictures. She said, “Look at 
that, he looks just like a baboon.’”’ The photographer replied, 
“You should have thot of that before you had his picture 
taken.” 

Imagination enables us to anticipate the future, but in so 
doing we are obliged to use the materials from the past. It is 
as impossible to create in the mental as in the material world. 
We cannot change the past experience but we can, thru im- 
agination, reorganize it, make a new suit out of the material of 
the old one, so to speak, and we can determine, to a degree, 
what the new one shall look like. Thru imagination we are, 
to a degree, masters of the future. 

Remembering is reproducing an experience we have had. 
Ideal representation, or imagination, combines the remembered 
material of two or more experiences, leaving out some elements 
and adding others and so produces a new idea. 

Images and Percepts.—Images are usually less vivid than 
percepts. They contain less detail. They give us the outline 
of the percept, or a skeleton of the plan of the percept, so to 
speak. The percept may be very faint sometimes too. Often 
it is difficult to determine whether we actually heard a very 
faint sound or whether we just imagined it. Then again we 
may imagine voices that are so loud and distinct that we have 
difficulty in convincing ourselves that we did not hear an 
audible voice speaking. We remember the story of the boy 
Samuel in the Bible. He heard a voice calling him but no one 
else heard it altho they were evidently within hearing distance. 
The interpretation of the voice made by Eli is of interest for 
we know that in the day of the occurrence people had not the 
slightest knowledge of the formation of an idea, nor of the 
power of the imagination nor its method of operating. Voices, 


IMAGINATION 141 


they thot, never came from within but always from without. 
They did not understand how “one can hear himself think,” 
much less how he can know the results of subconscious mental 
reactions. Coming from outside, and no one present having 
spoken nor heard a voice, Eli very readily attributed the voice 
to Jahveh, his God. 

Weare able to control the imagination as we cannot control 
percepts. If we look at a red object we see the red. We may 
interpret it as blue, or “see” it as blue thru exercising the 
imagination, but the impression made upon the retina of the 
eye is made by the red waves, and the percept is red. Of 
course we can turn our face in another direction and get away 
from the red, but as soon as we do we are compelled to form 
other percepts because of what we see in the new position. 
But we cannot have a percept of red when we are not looking 
at a red object. 

We can recall the image of the red object no matter where 
we are. We recall pictures, scenes, persons when we are far 
from them. As I sit at my desk writing this, I can recall the 
first view I ever had of the Jungfrau as I looked out of my 
hotel window one morning in Interlaken, Switzerland. A 
heavy snow storm had just passed and left the atmosphere as 
clear as crystal, and there in all of its majesty and beauty stood 
the Jungfrau apparently within walking distance yet in reality 
miles away. 

I can see myself crossing the Grindelwald glacier with a 
party of friends in a pouring rain and stopping in the cottage 
of a mountaineer later for shelter. But in neither case do I 
have a percept of the Grindelwald or Jungfrau. To have 
that I must be where the light waves from them can strike 
my eye. 

I can imagine things differently than they are. I can im- 
agine a six foot man three feet tall, a lean man as a fat man. 


142 PRACTICA ARO ar OLOGY, 


I can imagine a yellow orange red. I can assign all sorts of 
qualities to an object by use of the imagination. 

Percepts and images differ also in respect to their environ- 
ment. The percept always has a definite environment. You 
see it as it is at the moment you look. Its relation to its 
environment is fixed, but not so with the image. We may give 
the image any environment we wish. We may see the Statue 
of Liberty standing on the pinnacle of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 
London as well as to see it on Bedloe’s Island in New York 
harbor. We may imagine an honest man a rogue, or the 
reverse. We may construet an environment the like of which 
was never seen, but we cannot form a percept of it. 

Sometimes the image is so distinct that it dominates con- 
sciousness as in hysteria and delirium. We shall look into this 
phase of the question later. As we have already seen, we are 
compelled to accept our sense-percepts as normal and, there- 
fore, as furnishing us trustworthy data. We have grown up 
with this idea in mind and having become habituated to accept- 
ing our percepts at their face value, we readily accept as true 
anything that we regard as perceptual. 

Imagination and Beliefs.—Imagination is at the founda- 
tion of most of our ideas and beliefs. We find ourselves be- 
lieving certain things and then try to find reasons for the belief, 
That is, we seek to rationalize them. We seldom do much 
thinking before a belief has been set up, hence, as a rule, our 
beliefs are not the result of reason, altho we have attempted to 
find a reason for them after they have become ours. We 
rationalize our beliefs, but we seldom analyze them to discover 
how we came by them. One believes in God, but what does 
his idea of God mean? Why does he hold it? He has certain 
ideas about the Bible. Where did he get them? Why does he 
hold them? In almost every instance upon inquiry, you find 
one seeking for a reason for the belief and when he thinks he 


IMAGINATION 143 


has found one or two that satisfy him, he goes no farther. 
He does not want to find facts of experience that tend to fall 
out with his belief. He likes to believe what is pleasant rather 
than what is true, especially if it does not accord with his 
inherited beliefs. 

Of course, few like to stand alone. Even misery likes com- 
pany. We like those who form their opinions as we do and 
who believe as we do. It is that which has made religious 
institutions exclusive. They rather exclude than tolerate dif- 
ferent opinions. It is easier, and they do not have to adjust 
themselves to the beliefs of those whom they have excluded. 

When we seek for companionship in our beliefs, we seek 
for authority and too often our feelings and beliefs remain 
settled because we settled them years ago and do not wish them 
disturbed. When we can find no better support for our posi- 
tion, we fall back upon the stock proof of “they say.” Em- 
phasizing that Shakespeare was right when he said, “All’s true 
that is mistrusted.”—Winter’s Tale. But only so far as facts 
are imaged do they influence beliefs. If we do not image all 
the facts, we are bound to be warped in judging, and can have 
little or no sound basis for belief. We believe what we 
imagine. 

One’s fundamental beliefs control his actions, but often his 
actions do not give evidence of having been caused and con- 
trolled by his professed beliefs. That usually results from not 
having recognized the relation of beliefs to knowledge. Be- 
liefs are always the fringe of knowledge. One has an experi- 
ence and as a result he knows something. He seeks for an 
explanation of his knowledge, and sets up an hypothesis to 
account for it. In other words, he believes it was caused thus 
and so. He imagines it came about in a certain way. His 
actual beliefs always sustain this close relationship to what he 
knows, Often one imagines he believes certain things, but 


144 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


they have no relation to what he knows. They are not beliefs. 
They do not direct his actions, they are imaginings only. How 
often have we heard men say, “You must believe,’ as tho 
believing were a matter of the will. You might as well ask a 
six footer to be seven feet as to ask one to believe by sheer 
force of the will. One may say he believes, and for the time 
think he does; but if his belief is a fundamental thing he will 
not hold it by virtue of will power, but because he can give 
reason for it which satisfies the highest power of the mind. 

Imagination and Bias.—Bias is a characteristic of the 
mind by which it finds itself leaning toward or away from 
certain ideas. A real bias or prejudice may be quite uncon- 
scious to the mind that holds it. If one knows he is for or 
against a plan or proposition and does not know why, he is 
said to be biased, but often one is entirely unconscious of the 
least feeling of bias. 

Lawyers in court are always on the lookout for the biased 
juror. If one knows that he is prejudiced against certain 
things he may be able to take his prejudice into account and 
render a decision according to facts, but not so the uncon- 
sciously biased man. Leading questions in court tend to create 
a bias in the mind of the witness. Suggestion even in a mild 
way tends to set up a reaction that is either favorable or un- 
favorable to the thing referred to. Your friends tell you that 
you are working too hard, and you feel the result. Your work 
does seem harder. You had not realized that you were working 
so hard. Clairvoyants take advantage of this quality of the 
mind to establish a subconscious bias which gains for them the 
confidence of their clients who tell the clairvoyant a lot of 
things that are retold to the client without his recognizing them 
at all. 

The reason for all of this is that the imagination has clothed, 
almost unconsciously to one, these suggestions and hints with a 


IMAGINATION 145 


sanctity that approaches the “holy of holies.” One will take 
offense at almost nothing so soon as he will to be told that he is 
prejudiced, or biased. The imagination has played him the 
trick it plays us all unless we are on guard all the time. 

It is necessary for us from time to time to drag out into 
broad daylight of reason these ideas of ours and examine them, 
analyze them, learn their pedigrees, and see whether they are 
of pure heritage or a mixture of all sorts of suggestions that 
have come to us unaware and upon which the imagination has 
done its work. 

There is a common prejudice in favor of those who accuse. 
While we say one is believed to be innocent until proven guilty 
we are too prone to act on the principle that the Irish juror said 
he did. After having served on jury a friend said to him, 
“Pat! how do you reach a decision? What do you pay most 
attention to, the testimony, what the attorneys say, or to what 
the judge says?’ Pat replied, “I don’t pay any attention to 
the lawyers nor to the judge and I don’t care what the testi- 
mony is. I just looks at the prisoner and says to meself, ‘if 
he ain’t guilty what’s he here for,’ and brings ’em all in guilty.” 

During the war all that was necessary to arouse enmity 
against one was to have someone, it mattered not who, call 
him a Red, a bolshevik, socialist, profiteer, slacker, and immedi- 
ately we were all quite willing to have almost any kind of treat- 
ment visited upon the accused. Our imagination became so 
active and our fears so aroused that almost any rascal could 
accuse the most respectable and get a hearing. 

In spite of our knowledge of the process employed in propa- 
ganda, we are inclined to believe what is told just because it is 
told. We seem inclined to believe that if a thing is told often 
enough it thereby becomes true, and the propagandists know 
that, and so they keep on. There is a tendency to believe the 
worst one can hear about anyone instead of a determination to 


146 PRAUIV@AISIE RWC Fay, 


believe only the best, and in neither case does one bother his 
head about getting at the truth. He just believes it and repeats 
it “for what it is worth.” 

Imagination and Idea.—The formation of an idea in- 
volves attention and memory. It results in a reorganization of 
the past and present for future use. Relating the percept, the 
associated notions, and the image results in producing the idea 
which is in part at least a new creation. It is the product of 
the imagination. It is an instance where the whole is greater 
than the sum of all the parts. We are creators just in so far 
as we are able to use the imagination in this process, and when 


we realize it, we find an inspiration in the fact that lifts us - 


above the ordinary instinctive following of impulses. 

However, we must distinguish between the idea and the 
image. An idea is what we use instead of the object and in 
its absence. It is not like the object in all its detail. As we 
have already seen, parts are omitted, others added, rearranged, 
modified until the new creation stands out in the mind in place 
of the object. The image is much more like the object than 
the idea is and yet they are often confused. The idea is the 
meaning of the image and not the image itself. Here, again, 
the varying powers of men are seen. Two persons look at the 
same object and have somewhat similar images of it but of the 
meaning, what a difference! One sees the block of marble and 
that only. The other sees within the block and enclosed by it 
a Venus de Milo awaiting release. One sees a political office as 
a job with a salary attached. The other sees an opportunity to 
serve humanity. One sees in an educational institution a four 
years’ humdrum of routine to be lived thru. The other sees in 
it innumerable opportunities opening out in the field of learning 
and of life. ? 

When memory images become stronger than sense-percep- 
tive material, one is old. He is living in the past. He has no 


a 


IMAGINATION 147 


new ideas, no vision. It is possible for one to keep himself 
young by keeping his sense-perceptive processes always active. 
He need not get old mentally. Shall we get old? 

‘What then? Shall we sit idly down and say 

The night hath come; it is no longer day? 

The night hath not yet come; we are not quite 

Cut off from labor by the falling light; 

Something remains for us to do or dare; 

Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear; 

Not C&dipus Coloneus, or Greek ode, 

Or tales of pilgrims that one morning rode 

Out of the gateway of the Tabard Inn, 

But other something, would we but begin; 

For age is opportunity no less 

Than youth itself, though in another dress, 

And as the evening twilight fades away 

The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. 


Let me make clear just what I mean by the difference 
between the idea and the image. Think of a great painting like 
“The Horse Fair.” The artist in studying and painting the 
picture had to give unbounded attention to the details of pic- 
ture making, the colors, the canvas, the perspective, lights and 
shades, position of the horses, the men in the picture. In fact 
she was much concerned with the images of the objects which 
she was painting. Of course she was concerned with more 
than that, but with that much she had to be concerned, if she 
was to paint a picture that would satisfy her. 

We visit the Metropolitan Art Gallery and look upon that 
masterpiece and with what are we concerned? None of the 
things named above. We are concerned with the meaning of 
the picture, the meaning of the images of the horses and men 
and not with the images themselves. 

The pictures of war to the artist mean one thing as he 
works them out. He is concerned with the images of the 
things of war in order that he may make us see the meaning 
of war. The poet uses images only that he may teach 
meanings. Read the following from Richard Le Gallienne and 


148 PRACITICALBPSYGCHOLOGY 


note the images that arise in your mind and then note the 
meaning of those images as the effect makes itself felt upon 
you. You see a meaning of dress parade and the butchering 
of the battle field that makes you hate the thing. The real 
meaning of drum and fife and dress parade is the “broken old 
mothers, and the whole dark butchering without a soul.” 


War 

I abhor; 

And yet how sweet 

The sound along the marching street 
Of drum and fife, and I forget 
Broken old* mothers, and the whole 
Dark butchering without a soul. 


Without a soul—save this bright treat 
Of heady music, sweet as hell; 

And even my peace abiding feet 

Go marching with the marching street, 
For yonder goes the fife, 

And what care I for human Life; 

The tears filled my astonished eyes, 
And my full heart is like to break, 
And yet it is embannered lies, 

A dream those drummers make. 


Oh it is wickedness to clothe 

Yon hideous, grinning thing that stalks 
Hidden in music like a queen 

That in a garden of glory walks, 

Till good men love the things they loathe; 
Art, thou hast many infamies, 

But not an infamy like this. 

O, snap the fife and still the drum, 

And show the monster as she is. 


The effect of the theater is in the meaning, not in the 
images. It is the matter of interpretation. We ought to give 
attention to the use of the imagination so that we may interpret 
correctly. Not stop with the image but “follow thru” to the 
meaning. 

Examine the following quotations and see what part im- 
agination plays in each: 


IMAGINATION 149 


“These obesity doctors live on the fat of the land.” —Ashe- 
ville Times. 

“Tf placed end to end the national debts would reach where? 
To the conclusion that war is unprofitable.’’—Colorado Springs 
Gazette. 


“A tiny maid, held up to hear her father’s voice on the tele- 
phone, burst into tears. “What are you crying for?” asked her 
mother. “Oh, mamma,” cried the child, “however can we get 
daddy out of that little hole?” —Morning Post. 

“The Literary Digest speaks of a ‘Plan for giving every 
man work to fit his brains.’ But just think how many people 
that would throw out of work permanently.’—Nashwille 
Southern Lumberman. 

“The nations should make peace first and then they should 
make it last.’—Norfolk Virgiman Pilot. 

Imagination and Environment.—The importance of the 
imagination is that it provides us material for interpreta- 
tion. That material comes from our environment of houses 
and lands, cities and villages, companions and family, etc. 
What meaning can the workers of a factory get from the long 
rows of houses all built the same and looking alike? There is 
nothing in them to arouse the imagination. Business men have 
begun to learn that, and in many instances now we find some 
attention given to architectural design of houses for the work- 
ers. Just as a new toy arouses the imagination and kindles new 
ideas in the mind of a child, so to a greater degree does a change 
in environment arouse the latent powers of aman. This is the 
great value of travel, reading, lectures, concerts. This is the 
great value of group meetings of all kinds. New images are 
aroused by them and new meaning arrived at. Can you remem- 
ber in your younger days the thrill that went thru you when 
on some little journey you reached the top of some hill for the 
first time and saw the landscape spread out before you? How 


150 PRACUICAIMPS YGHOLOGY 


far you could see! You could almost feel yourself grow. You 
were trying to keep pace with the growth of your world. You 
were never the same again. A new meaning of things had 
come to you. 

One’s success in life depends upon the meaning he reads 
into the images that are aroused in his mind. If one is engaged 
in manufacturing and his men are like machines to him, if he 
reads into them the same meaning he reads into his plant, he 
is going to get from them just what he gets from his machine, 
a small percentage of return for the power furnished to the 
machine. He will furnish a certain amount of power to the 
men thru the pay envelope and he will get a certain percent of 
that power delivered in the task, and that is all. But men are 
more than machines. Men are able to understand the meaning 
of things. Often they do not get the correct meaning, then 
they need help. If employers realized that what one can do 
depends upon what he knows and that what he knows depends 
upon what he sees with his mind’s eye, his imagination, they 
would make greater efforts to help men see. The man who 
cannot see beyond his job, cannot see the job. The student 
who does not see beyond the recitation does not see all there is 
in the recitation. The one who reads only what is printed in 
the book does not read the book. It is the meaning beyond the 
task, beyond the recitation, beyond the page of the book that is 
important. We are very much alike in looking at the surface 
of things. We get much the same percepts but there the simt- 
larity ends. One sees that and nothing more while his neighbor 
goes out into the immensities of the universe, or into the very 
depths of the human soul and the rest of us are strewn all along 
the road between them, not because we are compelled to be, but 
just because we have not learned to see the meaning of things. 
New possibilities are lost upon the man who does not see, but 
are quickly discovered and acted upon by the imaginative man. 


IMAGINATION I51 


New necessities and new expectations confront us. Who shall 
provide a way to meet them? The one who sees the meaning 
of things. Does that mean you? You ought to see farther 
into your task than any one else. If not, you ought to discover 
what the other man sees that you do not. It is the ability to 
see that made of a newsboy a Thomas A. Edison. It is the 
ability to see that produced a Marconi, a Langley, a Wright. 

Control of Imagination.—Imagination operates under 
principles the same as other forms of behavior, such as the 
memory, conception, etc., and it may run wild or be controlled. 
Sometimes the imagination, if uncontrolled, may outrun the 
power of perception and of memory to such an extent that one 
cannot remember things as they were or are. He lives in an 
imaginary world and becomes quite abnormal in certain things, 
a monomaniac perhaps. He has a case of the “nerves.” He 
has unwittingly let his imaginative ideas run riot until he has 
become a slave to them. Another person may control his im- 
agination and make it serve him. We shall see more about this 
later in the course. In normal life freedom of imagination 
ought not to interfere with the reality of the sense-perceptive 
material, but rather enrich it. 

Constructive Imagination—We have noted that the 
imagination is confined to the material provided thru the sense- 


perceptive processes and that the reappearance in consciousness 


of these impressions is called images. When these images are 
rearranged, sorted, enlarged, reduced in size, etc., for a par- 


ticular purpose, it is said to be the work of the constructive, or 


Creative imagination. We shall refer to this function of the 


mind as the constructive imagination. We build rather than 
create, altho to a degree, one does create in the ideational 


_ process. 


When one reads, or listens to a description, he constructs 
the scenes as they are described. When a landscape is reierred 


152 PRAGCEICAM PSY GHOLOGN 


to with its hills and valleys, trees and brooks at once one’s mind 
builds up a scene to correspond. Usually one’s mind runs 
back to some scenes of an earlier experience which he idealizes 
by adding or omitting elements to make it fit the description. 
That is constructive imagination. Finding out things for our- 
selves in any line is the work of the constructive imagination. 
Ingenuity whenever applied involves imagination. Construc- 
tive imagination enables the inventor to set up an hypothesis. 
and then test it. It enables a Shakespeare to people a stage 
with characters and make them speak. It was the great asset 
of Beethoven, Raphael,-Sir Christopher Wren, Captain Eades, 
Titian. Whenever one follows his own bent, whenever he 
seeks to build a new world out of the material of the old, he is 

calling upon the power of the constructive imagination. 

It is the dreamer, the one with imagination, who has made 
the world move. Without imagination the world would still 
be in the stone age. It is the dreamer who invents and dis- 
covers, 

Galileo looked at the moon and dreamed of means to 
approach it. He invented the telescope to see more clearly the 
mountains of the moon. He discovered the moons of Jupiter, 
and the pendulum. Watt dreamed of controling the power of 
steam, Whitney of the cotton-gin. Men with imagination gave 
us our dyes and medicines, and are revolutionizing the world 
thru chemistry applied to industry. Men with imagination are 
the most practical of men. 

Imagination controlled by reason becomes the greatest power 
of the human mind. That power becomes active at puberty and 
remains active as long as used. It is the inner vision of what 
is now invisible. One sees things as they are with his physical 
eye, and as they ought to be with his mental eye. Imagination 
closes the eye of the body and opens the eye of the mind. 
The constructive imagination combined the twenty-six little 


IMAGINATION 153 


railroads between New York and Buffalo into the New York 
Central lines. It has built steamships, bridges, cathedrals, and 
airplanes. It combines concepts and hitches them to useful 
work. It seeks order in the universe. 

Types of Constructive Imagination.—There are several 
ways in which the imagination deals with the material con- 
served by memory. 


1. It may separate some of the items from the group, or 
separate the group from its environment. It may then 
deal with the elements separated, or with the ones 
remaining. 

2. It may combine some elements from several groups, or 
add some elements to the group. It may imagine paint 
added to a house, a spotlight on an automobile. 

3. It may substitute in a landscape a mountain for a valley, 
a creek for a path. It may put a man’s head on a horse’s 
body. 


Your Imagination.—It is said that one is worth $2.00 a 
day up to his ears. Above that depends upon what he sees. 
Does one have vision? “Without vision the people perish,” 
said a preacher of old, and without vision the individual is of 
little worth above the power of muscle. Have you ever thot 
of being something else than what you are now? Can you 
visualize clearly your present situation? Can you see clearly 
the possible ways of improvement? Do you see and can you 
command the means necessary to accomplish that improvement fF 
Do you see the dfficulties to be overcome? Have you a definite 
plan of action? Do you have a vision of your success? Does 
your blood tingle as you see yourself winning? If you can 
answer all of these questions in the affirmative, you are on the 
way to success. Without vision, imagination, success is 
impossible. 


154 PRACTIGAT VEY CRO) CHa 


It may be that you have been deluded by the vision of 
incompetence. You know others can succeed but think you 
cannot. You have never actually seen yourself in the desired 
position because of the delusion, but you must “Put yourself in 
his place.” You must see yourself in the position which you 
would like to occupy. You must make circumstances serve you 
instead of being buffeted by circumstances. 

Have you ever thot what you would do if you were de- 
prived of your best friend? If you were worth a million 
dollars? If you were president of Harvard? Governor of 
your state? President of-the Standard Oil Company? If you 
were to become the head of the organization or institution 
with which you are connected? Have you ever thot what the 
world would be like if every person was actually prompted by 
the same motives you are? Have you thot seriously of what 
America is to become in the world? Have you thot of your 
relation to the great moral, ethical, and religious problems of 
the day? 

Problems.—It is only the intelligent person that has any 
problems. The dull mind sees no difficulties. Everything is 
very simple. The old saying of “Know nothing, fear nothing” 
is quite true. ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,’’ but 
they are the only ones who do. The undisciplined mind does 
not want to suspend judgment. It wants an answer now. It 
wants to be sure. The angry man cannot wait for the law to 
take its course, so he fights now. He cannot “‘see.”’ There is 
tendency to minimum effort, a desire to get things the easiest 
way. We fall into the habit of taking that way whether we 
get the things we want or not. But one must get the facts. 
He must inquire, investigate as the only sure way to the right 
road. 

Power of the Imagination.—The power of the imagina- 
tion upon the interpretation of experiences is most remarkable. 


IMAGINATION 15s 


This is seen in the testimony of many witnesses in court. It is 
not at all unusual that a witness telling what he has seen is 
very much more specific a year or two after the occurrence than 
he was shortly after it, and yet almost always the more detail 
a witness recites the more inclined the jury is to believe him. 
The witness usually gives as a reason for the great detail in 
his later testimony the fact that he has had time to think it over 
and to recall all the circumstances. The witness has certainly 
not seen the occurrence repeated. He has not seen it again. 
He has let his imagination work. He has read or discussed, 
or both, the details until often unconsciously he has come to 
believe that he saw what a week or two after the happening, 
he declared he did not see. 

This may be seen from the case of Sacco and Vanzetti who 
were convicted of first degree murder in Dedham, Mass., in 
1921. 

Shortly after the crime a witness who saw the holdup men 
from the second story of a building about 80 feet away said, 
“T do not think my opportunity afforded me the right to say he 
is the man.” After a visit to the Police Headquarters where 
she studied Sacco minutely, the witness admitted that she could 
not identify him as one of the two holdup men. More than a 
year after she gave a minute description of the holdup man— 
color of hair, build, etc., and positively identified Sacco as the 
man. From the standpoint of psychology this is interesting. 
She had opportunity during the visit to Police Headquarters 
to observe the color of hair, build, etc., which she could hardly 
have been able to do from the second story window eighty feet 
away. Why did not the witness mention these characteristics 
on the first examination? Why could she not identify him 
then? If she knew more about the matter a year later, she did 
not learn it from seeing again the holdup men in the street on 
_ the day of the murder. How did she learn it? 


156 PRACBICALY PSY GCHOLROGY 


Another witness at the preliminary hearing said she could 
not identify the man. A year later she was positive in her 
identification. Thirteen witnesses, some of them within a few 
feet of the car in which the murderers rode could not identify 
the two men. Yet she from a distance of eighty feet could. 

There is always a tendency for the mind to idealize or to 
degrade a situation. We idealize those we like and detract 
from those whom we do not like. History, heroes, and villains 
are “dressed up’ by the imagination as the little child “dresses 
up” the rag doll, or a block of wood. We construct gruesome 
pictures of calamities, we build valhallas, happy hunting 
grounds, heaven, hell, the world of poetry and romance. We 
“see” all of these as we wish them to be. 

Things seem so simple after someone has mastered them 
and pointed the way to our understanding, as for example, 
“The Dynamo.” 

The mightiest things seem simple 
And easy to understand; 


When Genius has mastered their secrets, 
And put the key in our hand. 


Everyone knew the magnet, 
And everyone knew the coil; 
But Genius wove them together, 
And eased mankind of its toil. 


Man was afraid of the lightning— 
Awed at the cataract’s roar; 

But Genius bound them in harness, 
To work for man evermore. 


But Man scarcely deems it a wonder, 
So simple the dynamo looks; 
Genius he thinks a mechanic, 
Romance he looks for in books. 
—Watpo T. Davis. 


Limits of the Imagination.—Thru the power of the imag- 
ination one has free range thru space and time. He can swing 
back over the entire history of civilization. He can turn the 


ts 


IMAGINATION 157 


telescope into the far reaches of the universe and then continue 
the journey with Belot, astride a ray of light, travelling at 
speed of 186,000 miles a second. The distances soon become 
too great to measure by such units and he begins to measure 
with light centuries. After 600 centuries of travel they come 
to the edge of the Milky Way and continuing for between five 
and six thousand centuries, arrive at the great spiral nebula of 
Andromeda and still the imagination goes on. ; 

We can turn the spectroscope out into those far distant 
parts of the universe and study the material of which worlds 
are being made and see the process in operation. We look 
thru the strongest microscope and see worlds of life almost too 
small for our ordinary mathematics to deal with, and still the 
imagination goes beyond the reach of the most powerful 
instrument. 

It would seem that the imagination is limitless and all 
powerful. Yet it cannot imagine eternity, goodness, truth, 
beauty, nor the absolute. It cannot bind particulars into unity 
of law or principle. It may select one particular and idealize it, 
a good man and idealize him, a beautiful cathedral and idealize 
that, but it cannot generalize. As William DeWitt Hyde once 
said, “Imagination gives us 


ideas but not laws, 

types but not principles, 

art but not science, 

mythology but not philosophy.” 


In order to attain these we must employ another activity of 
the mind. 


CHAPTER VII 
THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 


WE have seen in an earlier chapter that we have no way 
of knowing the mind except thru bodily activity. There is no 
such distinction between the mind and the body as has been 
thot to exist. We have seen that we are not aware of many 
things which we perceive, remember, and infer. They are 
stored away in the unconsciousness. Yet while they are stored 
there apparently out of mental reach they have a good deal of 
influence on our conscious reflection. We know that one can- 
not understand the mind without understanding the body and 
vice versa. Every thot pulsates thru the body and every dis- 
turbance of the sympathetic nervous system disturbs the mind. 
What we remember is only a very small part of what we have 
experienced. Those things which we seem to have forgotten 
completely and those acts that have become habitual make up 
a large part of our unconsciousness. 

Day Dreaming.—We have seen that day dreaming, or 
reverie, is free association of ideas, and that memory and 
imagination are both active in the process. Day dreaming is 
closely related to the subconscious. Many of the aircastles of 
our imagination are modified by forgotten experiences and by 
others which are pushed up into consciousness from the sub- 
conscious reservoir into which in past days they have been 
poured. Day dreaming and reverie are to most of us very 
pleasant occupations but they do not add any knowledge to our 


store. The process is more or less aimless, 
158 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 159 


Choosing.—I may have finished my day dreaming. It is 
time to move. The sun has gone down. It is getting chilly. 
I am brought to myself by some slight discomfort. It may be 
that there has come into my mind the thot that I had promised 
to call at my friend’s house before dinner. Anyway, I feel I 
must be going. How shall I go? Shall I take a car or walk? 
I remember that the cars are a half hour apart and that one 
just went by a few minutes ago. So I decide to start on 
afoot. Shall I go by the lower road or by the upper one? I 
decide to go by the upper one. I have chosen between two 
alternatives and then between two others, but I have not neces- 
sarily added anything to my stock of knowledge as a result of 
my thinking. 

Rationalization.— Wee saw in the last chapter that we 
often find ourselves holding certain beliefs. We try to find 
reasons for them. We try to make them seem reasonable to 
us and hope by so doing they will seem reasonable to our 
friends also. We do not try to learn the pedigree of the belief, 
or to discover the history of an idea. We rather seek argu- 
ments to support some preconceived idea. We find the excuses 
for our ideas but not the reasons for their existence. The wish 
is father to the thot. We cannot stand complacently by and have 
our pet ideas disturbed. We must think out some arguments 
to support them. But we do not think. We reject every- 
thing that does not “square” with our view of the situation. 
We do not by this means add anything to our stock of knowl- 
edge. Rationalizing our beliefs never enlarges or broadens 
them. Knowledge is a means to power. Rationalization, as 
we are thinking of it here, is the opposite. It really decreases 
one’s power. 

There is no occasion for one to begin the process of 
rationalizing until some move has been made toward a more 
advanced position in that line of experience. There was no 


160 PRACTICAL RS Y GHOLOGY 


need to “rationalize” Ptolemaic astronomy until after the an- 
nouncement of the Copernican theory. There was no need to 
“rationalize” the catastrophic method of creation until after the 
days of Sir Charles Lyell and Darwin. Hence, all attempts at 
“rationalization” are to enable us to find excuses for doing 
and believing as we do. It requires less effort than it does to 
follow the experiences of those who have gone on ahead of 
us. The subconscious motto of the “rationalizating’” man is, 
“Where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise.” Such persons 
do not add to the world’s knowledge, because they do not 
think. They choose between two groups of facts. Shall they 
take the upper road or the lower? They choose to take the 
lower. They have never blazed a new trail in their lives, 
Constructive Thinking.—AIl normal individuals are en- 
dowed with a certain amount of curiosity. One leaves his 
office in a hurry to meet an engagement. As he goes out of 
the building, he sees a group of people in the street. His 
curiosity leads him to go over and see what is the cause of the 
gathering. Automobile accident! He goes on down the street. 
Men are excavating for a new building. He has no vital con- 
cern in the matter but he just looks in to see how the work is 
getting along. And so on, having his curiosity aroused at 
every turn and in between turns. It is the instinct of wonder, 
or of curiosity, in every one of us that opens the way to all 
human achievement. One wonders and then seeks to find the 
cause behind the phenomenon. Where thousands look on in 
idle curiosity, one looks on with an inquiring mind and really 
observes, reflects, and then something happens. Thousands of 
people had seen apples fall before Newton’s time, but no one 
reflected on the phenomenon enough to discover any relation | 
between the motion of the moon and the falling of the apple. 
As a result of Newton’s observations and reflections the uni- 
formity of gravitation thruout the solar system was estab- 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 161 


lished. Later the observations and reflections of the two 
Herschels in regard to double stars established the fact that 
gravitation is uniform thruout the universe. 

While Michael Faraday in 1831 was observing and reflect- 
ing upon what would happen if he rotated a piece of copper 
between the two poles of a horse-shoe magnet, others were 
observing and reflecting upon the political and social condi- 
tions of England. The result of his efforts was the invention 
of the dynamo; of theirs, the Reform Bill of 1832. In both 
cases real thinking was done. They not only chose between 
two ways, but blazed a new way. They enlarged the knowl- 
edge of the world. They did constructive thinking. 

Thinking of Animals and Man.—Animals think after the 
simpler form referred to above. Dogs and cats have ideas 
and they can express them in some form of language. The 
dog speaks with a bark, a growl, a whine. He talks with his 
ears, tail, hair. The cat speaks with a purr, by rubbing against 
one, by spitting. Each of them uses a form of language but 
it expresses the most general ideas only. 

Thot is an elaboration of memory. No thot is possible 
unless its material is derived from memory ideas and, as we 
have seen, no memory idea is possible which has not at some 
previous time entered consciousness and been again aroused by 
a sensation. Memory, imagination, and thot are all limited to 
the materials of sensation. The qualities of memory, imagina- 
tion, and thot depend upon how one recombines or reor- 
ganizes, in whole or in part, the neuron patterns formed by 
earlier stimuli. 

Because the man can do more with the material of sensa- 
tion than the dog can, he has a better memory, better imagina- 
tion, and better powers of reflection. I look at my dog and he 
looks at me and he seems to “‘see” just as much as I do, but 
a cat crosses his trail and he runs after her. He cannot help 


162 BRAG TIGCALT RS ¥ Gh @ i OGny 


it. It is instinctive with him. The neuron patterns in his 
brain have been so set that when a cat crosses his field of 
vision, he runs. He obeys an impulse because he has not 
learned to control it. He makes no choice under such cir- 
cumstances. 

Instinctive Action.—Instinctive action differs from re- 
flex action for it involves more complex and extensive neuron 
patterns, and may be accompanied by consciousness. The dog 
is conscious of running after the cat, altho he probably does 
not know why he runs. We speak of an action becoming in-_ 
stinctive, when in reality we usually mean impulsive. That 
is what the action of the dog is in running after the cat. The 
really instinctive actions are the result of neuron patterns in 
the brain that were there when one was born. The impul- 
sive action results from the stimulation of neuron patterns that 
have been acquired by the individual, and not inherited. 

One acts instinctively without any idea of the result. Im- 
pulsive action follows a simple idea. One is made angry by 
an action of another. He is possessed of one idea. He strikes. 
A boy has a stone in his hand as he walks along the road. He 
comes to a vacant house. He feels an impulse to throw the stone 
at a window. No sooner does the idea enter his mind than 
he throws the stone. When taken to task for breaking win- 
dows, he says, “I didn’t think.” He told the truth. He did 
not think. He acted upon impulse, a single idea. Boys are 
often called criminals and savages because of some of their 
instinctive and impulsive actions. They may be little savages, 
but they are not criminals. They may be unmoral but not 
immoral. The boy acts upon impulse just as the dog does. 
The boy can be taught better as his experience broadens. He 
can be taught to choose between two lines of action, and so 
bring himself under conscious control. 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 163 


Eexperience.—The boy and the dog may both live thru the 
same series of events, but they will not, as a result of that, 
have the same experience. Simply living thru an event does 
not give valid experience. In order that one shall have a 
valid experience, he must know the causes and effects involved. 
Changes must be related to the results. We learn something 
thru a valid experience. Reflexes, the subconscious, and the 
habitual give very little real experience. The value of an ex- 
perience is determined by the amount of conscious effort 
aroused in opposition to the subconscious, and the habitual. 
Individual experiences do not establish principles. Individual 
experiences furnish subjective certainty, but principles cannot 
be established until objective certainty is established. The 
ability to discover principles and find ways of establishing 
objective certainty is what distinguishes the great from the 
small man. 

Our great need is to form new ideas and to get experience 
out of ideas we have learned about from others. Some ideas 
are incarnate, some are in books where we have an oppor- 
tunity to get ready made the experience of great minds and 
make it our own, but to be able to gain a real experience from 
the suggestions of others, is a difficult task. We read of an 
idea, but to so think into it that we shall be able to see our- 
selves going thru the actual experience the writer went thru 
in arriving at his idea so that in a sense we can make it our 
own requires effort. If our concepts are not accurately 
formed, there is a danger that even tho we read his words we 
may not think his thots. His words may recall experiences of 
ours quite different than his just because we have not a group 
of accurately named concepts. 

Information.—We may secure information by following 
the thots of others but information is not knowledge. The 
securing of information is not the chief end of education. The 


164 PRACTIGAIB PSY CHOY, 


end of education is the securing of knowledge and discovering 
a way in the securing of it that shall help one discover more 
knowledge. 

Knowledge is the result of what one has felt, thot, and 
done, or more exactly, knowledge is the result of the imterpre- 
tation of what one has felt, thot, and done. Learning is an 
acquaintance with what others have felt, thot and done. It is 
possible for two persons to go thru the same experiences so 
far as outward appearances are concerned, but the interpreta- 
tion of those events will vary considerably. One will interpret 
so that he makes a real gain in knowledge while the other | 
makes none. Wisdom is knowledge and learning combined. 

Intelligence.—Intelligence is determined by what one can 
do with what he knows, and what he knows is a result of his 
reflection. Thinking is an intellectual process. The thinking 
of Benedict Arnold was just as good as far as the accuracy of 
the process was concerned as was that of George Washington. 
Thinking depends upon the accuracy of the process and not 
upon the goal or the motive. Thinking is in no sense moral. 
The biggest rascal may think just as accurately as the greatest 
saint, and the morally sound man may be the most illogical. 
Thinking is not a spontaneous process like the digesting of food 
or breathing. It is seeing relations that lead to certain con- 
sequences. 

Seeking Relations.—One who thinks is always on the 
lookout for the discovery of new relations. It was in look- 
ing for relations that electric waves and the Hertz waves were 
identified. We need to study general conditions so that we 
will not waste time. Some years ago certain railroad men 
who were logically minded decided that the laws of triangula- 
tion should be applied in deciding where new railroads should 
be built. They remembered that the two sides of a right tri- 
angle are longer than the hypothenuse. So they decided they 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 165 


would build a railroad thru New York state from New York 
city to Syracuse, following the hypothenuse of right triangle 
which had its right angle at Albany and one acute angle at 
New York city and the other at Syracuse. This would make 
their road considerably shorter, while the trains of the New 
York Central would still be obliged to travel the longer route. 
As a result the New York, Ontario, and Western Railroad was 
built, but in spite of the shorter route of the newer road the 
thru traffic still goes over the New York Central because of 
the better grade. This is because distance on railroads is 
measured in hours and not in miles. The general conditions 
were not taken fully into account. The results were loss of 
money, time, and effort, and the Ontario and Western has 
always remained a second or third class railroad. 

Poor Thinking.—Poor thinking may be the result of sev- 
eral things. One may fail to get all the facts that bear on the 
case. He may fail to properly classify the facts, because of 
his inability to distinguish essential from non-essential ele- 
ments. He may not properly relate cause and effect. He may 
not deduce the right result or reach the right conclusion. Any 
one, or all of these, results in poor thinking. Good thinking 
must, therefore, be the opposite of all of these. 

Difficulties.—It is difficult to reason well because often we 
do not know enough about the matter to begin with. One 
must know a good deal about a question before he knows 
enough to reach an intelligent conclusion about it. For ex- 
ample, the masses cannot think about political questions for 
this very reason. They do not know enough about them to en- 
able them to do any real thinking. They accept views of leaders 
who win them, as we have seen in a previous chapter, by catch 
words and slogans. 

Many an argument sounds reasonable because we do not 
know enough about the subject to refute the simplest state- 


166 PRACTICA PSYCHOLOGY 


ment of the speaker. The arguments seem even more rea- 
sonable if the speaker affirms with much gusto, and dares his 
audience to deny them. Snap judgments are the result of rea- 
soning from too few facts. Other things being equal, the 
one with the most experience in any field will do the best 
thinking in that field. 

Cause of Thot.—When action follows directly upon the 
stimulation of a nerve there is no thot. If the action is in any 
way interfered with, it causes one to stop acting, but he will 
not necessarily think. There may be no neuron patterns into 
which the energy may flow and it will dissipate without action. — 
If there are associated neuron patterns into which the energy 
can flow, there will be action. 

As we saw earlier in the chapter, one may choose between 
two ideas which he has in mind and not do any real thinking. 
One will not think until he strikes some obstacle which at the 
moment seems insurmountable. There is a tendency for the 
mind to rely upon the lower mental processes just as far as 
possible. In such a situation one recollects as far as possible 
all previous modes of action, but finds no choice that will meet 
the situation. He may then do nothing, just give up. On the 
other hand, the obstacle may arouse an interest which will 
lead him to an increased effort and finally to a solution of the 
difficulty. The broader one’s experience the more apt he is to 
finda solution. If he has no experience, he will do no thinking. 

One may have trouble with his car. It stalls. He tries to 
start the motor but it will not go. He looks to see that there is 
gas in the tank, that the electric connections are all in order 
and does all the other things that one usually does when the 
car refuses to go. Then he may decide that the matter 1s 
beyond him and send for a garage man, but if he is miles from 
a garage, he will give very serious consideration to the situa- 
tion. He will assume cause after cause for the failure of the 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 167 


motor to start. That is, he will set up hypothesis after hypothe- 
sis and test each out in order to discover a remedy. This he 
does by eliminating all the non-essentials until finally he finds 
the seat of the trouble. 

If the difficulty is in one’s business, he must go thru the 
same process, or get someone else to do it for him. He may 
know that there is something wrong in some part of his busi- 
ness organization, but whether it is in the manufacturing or 
in the selling side of the business, he is not certain. He must 
then set up an hypothesis to account for what he knows hap- 
pens and then test the hypothesis, and then repeat the process 
until the cause is discovered. By this means new knowledge 
is acquired. 

Thot Processes.—Thot processes, then, are stirred to ac- 
tivity when one finds his way blocked, either physically or 
mentally. Then thru associative memory, one recalls all the 
remembered elements that seem to have a bearing upon the 
situation. Then a choice is made and if nothing satisfactory 
results, one is forced to quit or to deliberate. Up to this point 
the process is quite like memory. One looks over his past ex- 
periences in order to make a satisfactory choice among them. 

Original Thot.—If one does not find the desired pattern 
among those called up in associative memory and he still per- 
sists, he may select a part here, another there, until a pattern 
is produced that meets the case in hand. This building up a 
new pattern out of different elements, results in original 
thinking, or in constructive thot. 

Dewey’s Steps.—John Dewey has analyzed the process of 
thinking and gives the five following steps which one must 
take in a complete thot process: 


I. Recognize the problem. 
2. Interpretation of the problem. 


168 PRACTIGAR WS CLlOLOGy 


3. Suggested solution. 
4. Testing the suggestion. 
5. The acceptance or rejection of the suggestion. 


Acquisitive and Reflective Powers.—Most of us are bet- 
ter equipped with acquisitive than we are with reflective 
powers. This is due, no doubt, to the fact that we, as a race, 
have been exercising the former for millions of years while 
we are yet hardly beginning to use the reflective powers. The 
student who thinks things out instead of committing them to 
memory is rare. Most of us find that we can learn history by — 
heart easier than we can master the ideas set forth in the record ~ 
of movements. The first method results in information but 
not in knowledge, and is of little value except to help us pass 
an examination that has been poorly set up. Many are in- 
clined to commit the proof of geometrical propositions to 
memory instead of working out a proof of their own. It is 
because one acquires much better than he reflects. 

The test of reflection is in the application of the result to 
actual problems. I have had many students who could apply 
the rule for square root if they only knew to what to apply it. 
They could find the square root of a number without any dif- 
ficulty, but were never quite sure when the square root should 
be found. Because of their inability to reflect they never saw 
any relation between algebra and geometry, or between physics 
and chemistry. Getting knowledge in one field never threw 
any light upon any other field for them. Such seldom recog- 
nize a problem. They simply find themselves baffled, and try 
all sorts of ways of escape like an animal trying to find his way 
out of a maze. 

Those are the persons who need so much supervision in 
whatever field they are employed. They know how to do some 
things but they seldom know when to do them. Hence, they 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 169 


must be told. A large share of the cost of manufacturing is 
due to the fact that so much has to be paid for supervision of 
those who do not think. Of course, what is paid for super- 
vision cannot be paid to the workers in wages. 

From Particular to Particular—We reason from one 
particular to another particular. I remember that it took me 
seven minutes to walk to the station yesterday. I infer that it 
will take me seven minutes today. I look at my watch and see 
that I have hardly seven minutes, so I hurry. I hear a knock 
in my motor. I remember that once before such a knock was 
caused by carbon. I infer that carbon is the cause of the 
present knock. If my conclusion should be disputed by any- 
one I refer to my particular experience to prove my conclu- 
sion. When we prove a proposition by appealing to a par- 
ticular proposition, the process of reasoning is called inductive. 

From Particular to General.—It looks like snow. I will 
get my overshoes. It looks like rain. I will get my umbrella. 
Because I have discovered that clouds that look like those 
mean snow or rain. I appeal in this case to a general propo- 
sition to prove my case. When we prove a conclusion by ap- 
pealing to a general proposition, the process of reasoning is 
called deductive. 

Why Same Method Sometimes Leads to True and 
Sometimes to False Conclusion.—I say this is an American 
Beauty rose because I know that all roses having the char- 
acteristics of this rose are American Beauty roses. You may 
disagree. If you do, it will be because you do not admit my 
premise. You will say that all roses that have these charac- 
teristics are not American Beauty roses, hence, this rose may 
be in the class that are not American Beauty roses. 

Sugar is sweet. Saccharine is sweet. Therefore, sacchar- 
ine is sugar, you say. I admit that your premise is correct, 

but declare your conclusion to be wrong. This, that, and the 


170 PRAGTICALS Rew RLO Oy 


other unsupported bodies have fallen. Therefore, this unsup- 
ported body will fall. I agree to the premise and to the con- 
clusion. In both of these cases we have reasoned from true par- 
ticular propositions. In one case we found a true conclusion, 
in the other a wrong conclusion. We go from observed like- 
nesses to unobserved ltkenesses. One argues that sugar and 
saccharine resemble each other in being sweet, much as we 
remember that 4 cows and 4 horses and 4 sheep resemble each 
other in having the common element 4. The proof that sac- 
charine is sugar is based upon the fact that both are sweet. 
He thot that one sweet thing—sugar—is a type of all sweet 
things. He argued that saccharine is sugar because it is one 
of a class of sweet things, all of which are sugar. 

The case is quite different in regard to the falling of un- 
supported bodies. In that case he has observed that many 
objects unsupported have fallen and reasons that this one will 
because it belongs to a certain class of bodies having certain 
characteristics, one of which is to fall when unsupported. In 
regard to saccharine, he did not have cases enough to form an 
accurate concept of objects, a characteristic of which was sweet- 
ness. Therefore, in one case his conclusion was false and in 
the other it was true. 

Beginning of Thot.—Certain assumptions are made at 
the beginning of thinking. We call them axioms. The essen- 
tial quality is not that they are self-evident but that they are 
unproved. ‘These unproved axioms, or primitives as they are 
sometimes called, lie at the foundation of every line of thot. 
To determine these axioms, or postulates, is not easy. For 
instance in mathematics, one mathematician postulates certain 
axioms, another, others, and a third, still others. They may 
all agree as to one or two, but disagree as to the others. In 
the field of theology one man sets up certain postulates, an- 
other, others, etc. But after the assumptions are made and 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 171 


known, and we know what terms are left undefined, we must 
take all possible care to avoid contradictions. It is not dan- 
gerous to thot and conduct to hold any one notion, but it is 
dangerous to hold two contradictory notions. After a cer- 
tain point, every step must be defined and proved with the 
utmost precision. There are so many conclusions because there 
are so many assumptions. ‘These assumptions are important 
for they color all subsequent thinking. 

Necessary Beliefs.—There are certain beliefs which we 
hold that we have come to regard as necessary beliefs. They 
are based, however, upon experience, and in the light of that 
experience we hold certain beliefs concerning the future. For 
example, I have learned that fire heats water. It did yester- 
day. It has today. I cannot conceive of its not doing so 
tomorrow, or next week or next year. I cannot conceive of its 
not heating water on the moon or any other part of the uni- 
verse. We have seen the sun rise and set ever since we can 
remember. Will it rise tomorrow? We have somehow come 
to believe that in general what has been will be. That is, we 
believe the same causes will produce the same effects under 
the same conditions. Yet, we do not know that any of these 
things will happen as they have in the past. For all we know 
heat may freeze water tomorrow, but if it does it must change 
either the very nature of heat or the very nature of water. The 
two things cannot remain true to themselves and not react as 
formerly. Unless the past enables us to forecast the future, 
rational action would be impossible. 

Inductive Thinking.—We have seen that when we prove 
a conclusion by appealing to a particular proposition, the 
process is called inductive. We made reference to this method 
when we were dealing with the formation of the concept and 
noted that there is great danger that we shall generalize too 
hastily. That is, we shall form a notion of a class without 


172 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


having examined enough individuals to be sure we have found 
all of the essentials. The same danger is met with when we 
attempt to go from a particular to a general proposition. Per- 
fect induction means that every case has been examined. One 
essential overlooked upsets all the logic ever applied. The 
farmer must know what is in every field, the housewife what 
is on every shelf, the druggist what is in every bottle, the 
librarian the place of every book or he cannot generalize with 
certainty. In induction we state all we know based upon our 
experience. We go from the particular to the general. Induc- 
tion is the discovering of truth. 

Deductive Thinking.—When we prove a conclusion by 
appealing to a general proposition, the process is called 
deductive, as we have already seen. Deduction is the classifi- 
cation and application of truth. In this instance we go from 
a general law to a particular case. In both instances we depend 
upon our experience. One will reason badly because he has 
limited experience. If one finds his generalizations often in- 
correct he should get more experience, re-examine his concepts, 
and judgments, acquaint himself with the experience of others. 

Judgment and Thinking.—We have already seen that 
judgment is comparing and relating two concepts, as Iron— 
is—metal, We have also seen that the formation of a con- 
cept is a generalizing process. Induction closely resembles 
generalization, but in generalizing there is no going from the 
known to the related unknown, and hence there is no real 
thinking in forming the concept. Induction presupposes gen- 
eralization. Reasoning does with judgments what in a meas- 
ure judging does with concepts. It may help us to recall the 
process from sensations on. Sensations are the raw material 
out of which percepts are made. Percepts are the raw mate- 
rial out of which concepts are made. Concepts are the raw 
material out of which judgments are made. Judgments are 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 173 


the raw material out of which conclusions are made. Rea- 
soning is comparing or perceiving of relations among judg- 
ments. It is going from the known to the related unknown 
thru judgments. 

Laws of Thinking.—Parsimony—The law of parsimony 
is that one shall assume as little as possible. That is, the 
number of axioms must be the smallest possible. Causes must 
not be multiplied beyond the strictest necessity. We must not 
assume an unknown cause where a known cause will account 
for the phenomenon under consideration. For example, Kepler 
studying the movements of the planets came to the conclusion 
that the planets were alive and moved by their own volition 
and were watched over by guardian angels. Today we believe 
that he assumed two causes too many. 

Analogy.—Analogy is direct inductive inference from any 
one fact to any similar fact. For instance, we draw analogies 
between the physical and the mental, and between the mental 
and the spiritual. Whenever two or more things have a num- 
ber of points in common, we assume that they have more in 
common than we have yet discovered. So in reality, reason- 
ing from analogy is based upon our ignorance and not upon 
our intelligence. At the best analogy only points to the 
probable. We often overlook this phase of the matter when, 
because a man is an authority in some field we assume he is an 
equally good authority in another field unrelated to the first. 
A few years ago a man who is a great expert in applying 
science in a certain field but who had never made a study of 
the Bible stated his belief in the literal infallibility of the book, 
and immediately those who agreed with him hailed his opinion 
with as much satisfaction as tho he had actually known some- 
thing about the matter of which he spoke. They reasoned 
by analogy. If this man knows so much in applied science, he 
must know a lot about everything including the doctrine of the 


174 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


literal infallibility of the Bible. He had made no study of the 
origin, development, and interpretation of the Bible. He 
knew nothing of the discovery, history, and translations of 
the thousands of manuscripts of the Bible in existence. Yet he 
was ready to declare his belief and those who held the same 
belief hailed him as a great authority. Reasoning by analogy 
is based upon ignorance, but many are not wise enough to 
know it. 

Simple Minded Cannot Test Truth.—The simple minded 
do not know how to test the truth or falsity of a proposition. 
They do not know what. proof is. They do not know what 
evidence is. They do not know whether or not a fact is rele- 
vant to the case in hand. They do not know the relation of 
cause and effect except in the most patent cases. They do not 
understand what an explanation is. 

The untrained mind believes in many superstitions. The 
rabbit’s foot, the Ouija board, clairvoyants, thirteen at the 
table, fortune telling are common possessions of the group. 
They do not know why they believe in these things, but they 
do. They want certainty, authority, assertion, something to 
tie to. They would rather pay $50 to a quack who declares 
he can cure them positively than to go to.a great physician like 
Dr. Carrel, who, because of his great knowledge, would be a 
bit hesitant about making such a bold declaration about what 
he can do. They put great store on the unusual. They do 
not get at the meaning of things. They do not infer. They 
follow impulses. 

Intuition.—We often hear persons speak of new truth 
flashing into their minds as tho it came from somewhere with- 
out reflection. Such truths have been called a priori truths. 
There was a time, however, when a prioris did not exist. They 
have come into being. They are the results of previous at- 
tempts to think a proposition thru. Intuition is a product of 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 175 


all of the activities of the intellect. A prioris are not an en- 
dowment with which the creator has equipped man, but they 
are an achievement by man. They are the result of impres- 
sions left in the subconsciousness which later are brought into 
consciousness thru the proper stimulus. These intuitions have 
to be tested as do any other truth which the mind may hold. 

To make an adequate test of any conclusion one must 
examine many cases. Are the churches a force for good in a 
community? One must investigate many churches and their 
communities before he can answer intelligently. Can dis- 
eases be cured by the laying on of hands? One must make 
many investigations as to what diseases were actually claimed 
to be cured. What were the diseases? Were cures actually 
produced? In these and similar cases the testimony of scien- 
tifically trained physicians must be sought because they are 
the only ones who can properly diagnose a case of illness. 
They may fail sometimes, but they know much more than 
the quack, 

Laws of Thot.—There are certain fundamental principles 
which govern thot. These must be kept in mind when we 
attempt to discover relations. Judging is the direct discovery 
of relations. Reflection is the indirect discovery of relations, 
and when we think we have discovered a new relation, we must 
apply these fundamental laws in order to test the results. 
They are: 


1. The law of identity. That is, whatever is, is. Every- 
thing is identical with itself. A is A and B is B. 

2. The law of contradiction. Nothing can both be and 
not be. There can be no contradictory qualities. An 
object cannot be both black and white at the same 
time. The old Hebrew writer did not recognize this 
when he said, “All things are possible with Jahveh,” 


176 PRA CG TIGATS Sis YEON (aye 


It is outside the reach of human comprehension that 
God can make a world flat and round at the same 
time. The old theologian settled this by telling us 
that that is one of the mysteries of God, but man 
does not know enough about it to even know that it 
is a mystery. To man it is utterly impossible. If 
the old Hebrew had said that Jahveh could do all 
that is possible to be done, he might have been cor- 
rect in his statement. 

3. The law of the excluded middle. Everything must 
either be or not be. There can be no middle ground. 
There can be no opposite or contradictory terms. A 
thing cannot be hard and not-hard. The other terms 
sometimes used are hard and soft. A substance may 
be hard according to one standard and soft accord- 
ing to another one, but it cannot be hard and not-hard 
at the same time because the quality is measured by 
the same standard. As Jevons has pointed out, the 
situation in logic is quite unlike the situation in 
mathematics. In mathematics a thing may be 
greater than, equal to, or less than another. There 
are three conditions which arise because of a stand- 
ard which is not the object under consideration. In 
logic the condition is quite different because the thing 
is compared with itself. It cannot, therefore, be 
greater and not-greater than itself. 


Syllogism.—Syllogism is the name given to the process 
by which two propositions are joined in thot. There are 
three terms, the major premise, or term, the minor premise, 
or term, and the middle term. In reflecting, we so unite the 
two premises that we are able to infer from them, by means 
of the middle term, a third proposition called a conclusion. 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 177 


Formal logic, in which the syllogism is used, is a test of think- 
ing. It is not a process of discovering new ideas. One does 
not really think unless as he considers the two propositions, 
he is led to recognize a need for the word therefore. Inference 
is always indicated by that word. If one reaches a conclusion 
without having use for the word therefore, he may be pretty 
certain that he has not been thinking but has jumped to a con- 
clusion. 

One may heat a bar of iron to 1000 degrees F. and find 
that it becomes luminous, or glows. He will then infer that any 
and all bodies of iron when heated to 1000 degrees F. will be- 
come luminous. If the situation is put into the form of a 
syllogism it will look like this: 

Major premise—This bar of iron is heated to 1000 de- 
grees F. 

Minor premise—It is now luminous. Therefore, 

Conclusion or inference—Any and all bars of iron heated 
to 1000 degrees F. will become luminous. 

Here we infer a general or a universal law from this one 
experience. In other cases of different nature we might find 
it necessary to make many tests in order to be sure that we 
were dealing with the only cause sufficient to produce the 
effect under consideration. Having become certain about it, 
we would then be in a position to infer. 

We saw in the last chapter that the imagination could not 
go beyond the particular, that it could not bind particulars into 
generals, or laws, that in order to form laws and principles we 
must appeal to another phase or function of the mind. That 
power is the ability to infer or to draw inferences. These 
inferences are then tested by the use of the syllogism. 

I inferred a law from the effect of heat upon the bar of 
iron. I am quite certain that all men in the past have died. 
Iam a man, therefore, I infer that I shall die. I have gone 


178 PRA@TIGAM TES CGHOLOGY 


beyond the particulars with which the imagination deals to a 
generalization or to a law which is, that all men die. When 
we have reached such an inference, one that finds no contra- 
diction in our minds, we have found real satisfaction. 

Arrested Thinking.—The paths of progress of the race 
are strewn with examples of arrested thinking, cases where 
men have thot a process almost to completion and then for 
some reason have failed to see the connection or the relation 
to the next essential and have apparently failed, and the world 
has waited for years, sometimes for centuries, for someone 
to pick up the trail and follow it to the end. 

The Chinese printed from wooden blocks in the tenth cen- 
tury, as the Romans printed from dies on their coins in the 
first, but neither of them were able to generalize enough to 
make the process really usable in any large way. The world 
had to wait until the fifteenth century for the art of printing 
as we know it. 

In 1714 Henry Mill made an invention and took out a 
patent on the forerunner of the present typewriter, but noth- 
ing ever came of it because of the inability or the opportunity 
to make the necessary inference and apply it. After a hun-~ 
dred years a “Typographer’” was invented and patented by 
W. A. Burt, which became the immediate forerunner of the 
modern typewriter. 

Years ago in Australia when the wheat crops were too 
large to be harvested, a man by the name of Ridley invented 
a machine called a “stripper’’ or header, which greatly reduced 
the need for manual labor. Ridley had read in an old en- 
cyclopedia about a reaping machine which had been used in 
Gaul centuries ago and which had been described by Latin 
writers on agriculture. The old Gaulish inventor was not 
able to make his inference practical enough to warrant the 
world in continuing its use. 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 179 


Men exercise ingenuity in the presence of forced needs. 
When slave labor bears down the world because of its cost and 
inefficiency, a necessity arises that calls for the best thinking 
of men. Power is needed to take the place of the muscle of 
men and of oxen. Then Watt discovers the expansive power 
of steam and makes its use practical. The world faced an- 
other necessity. The new power resulted in a large increase 
of manufactured goods. The industrial revolution was in 
process. The demands for raw material and for the distri- 
bution of the finished products called for attention. Robert 
Fulton invented the steamboat, George Stephenson the loco- 
motive and the transportation of the world was put upon a 
new basis. 

It has been a long way from the windmill to the screw pro- 
peller, as it was a long way from the paddle to the side- 
wheeler. It is only in quite modern times that perception of 
similarities has been a force in making inventions. We have 
finally come to believe what Bacon said in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, that we cannot conquer nature save by obeying her laws, 
and we are coming to realize that when we speak of nature and 
nature’s laws what is meant is that law is the formulation of 
the method by which things operate, and that in essence all 
law is the same whether it deals with the physical, biological, 
sociological, or psychical. 

Finding Reasons For Things.—lIt is not always easy to 
find a reason for things. I mean a real reason. Of course, 
proof of what we believe is easily obtained. One can prove 
from different authorities that slavery is right, that drinking 
is not to be condemned, that our neighbors are those of our 
own set, that it is not wrong to hate our enemies. But these 
are proofs that do not prove. No sensible man today believes 
in human slavery, no matter what authorities may say, nor 
does he believe it right to sell diseased meat to the foreigner 


180 PRAGTIGAL PSY CHOROGY. 


in his town, altho in the past his religious teaching may have 
sanctioned it. We are beginning to see that in reflection one 
must go beyond the range of all authority to the facts. We 
must go to the expert for the facts, but we shall reserve the 
right to carry on our own reflection and reach our own con- 
clusions. 

Let us turn from the questions of belief to something that 
may seem more practical in the field of reflection. Suppose 
you were asked to tell why the city of Buffalo was built where 
itis. What reasons could you give that would account for it? 
You are seeking for causes to account for certain effects—the 
city of Buffalo in its present location. When you have 
answered the question in regard to the location of Buffalo, 
answer the same question in regard to Indianapolis. Johan- 
nesburg. Suppose you were asked to state whether such a 
person as Jesus ever lived. Here, as elsewhere, you would 
need to get all the information possible before answering. 
After reading all the books on both sides of the question, you 
would, without doubt, come to the conclusion that such a per- 
son did live. You could answer intelligently because you had 
the facts, and saw the relations. 

Why Men Differ in Their Thinking.—As we have al- 
ready noted, the reasoning process may be correct, and the 
conclusion wrong because one of the premises is incorrect. 
Two men argue about a ship subsidy. One starts from the 
premise that anything that will increase the number of Ameri- 
can ships is a good thing. A ship subsidy will increase the 
number. Therefore, a ship subsidy is a good thing. The 
other man will deny the major premise. He will say that if 
foreign ships will carry our goods at a lower rate, it would be 
unwise to increase our rates just to put money into the pockets 
of a few American ship owners, that increasing the number of 
American ships is not under all circumstances desirable, 


THE REASON OR HOW WE THINK 181 


The same thing holds in regard to the programs of politi- 
cal parties, so far as they have any beyond a plan to get the 
votes. The problem of the tariff, of Strict and Loose con- 
struction of the Constitution, home rule, etc., lead to different 
conclusions because men argue from different premises. We 
see the same thing resulting in the labor world. Men see only 
one side of the proposition, and so often accept unwittingly a 
wrong premise, and hence, reach a wrong conclusion and 
trouble results in the industry. 

Use Reason in Acquiring Knowledge.—One should al- 
ways use his powers of thot in acquiring knowledge. Always 
ask questions. Always ask, why? Do not accept the conclu- 
sions of others without question. Find out what their con- 
clusions are, then find out how they reached them. The 
means whereby a conclusion is reached is of more importance 
to the thinking person than the conclusion itself, and when you 
state a conclusion of your own always stand ready to explain 
the premises from which you derived your conclusion. Above 
everything else be tolerant. Not only be willing to put up 
with the other man’s views but also give him as respectful a 
hearing as you wish for yourself. Know what you are seek- 
ing. Have a clear idea of what you are aiming at. Learn 
what others have discovered in the same field so you will not 
waste effort. Remember the intellect is invisible to him who 
has none. Do not try to compel others to accept your con- 
clusions. If you succeed you will make a slave of one of your 
fellows. Try to be accurate in all things, but remember that 
the most successful men, the men who will live thru the ages, 
have been, not those who have been able to measure accuracies, 
but those who have been best able to weigh probabilities. 

Logical Powers New.—Logical reason is a recent ac- 
quirement of the race, so it is quite natural that we should 
find a tendency to rely upon the lower mental processes so long 


182 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 


as they meet the demands and a little longer. When they fail 
we turn to the reflective powers. The mind has more affinity 
for objects than it has for concepts and principles with which 
reason deals and we appeal to them only as a last resort. It 
is this that makes it hard for us to get out of the hum- 
drum of life and into the atmosphere of great ideas. It is the 
efficient mind that discovers differences in situations, Many 
must follow rules, take orders from others, serve because they 
cannot interpret experience. The genius may see deeper mean- 
ing of things but he has no extra talent. He acquires his 
knowledge by the application of the same principles the rest 
of us can use if we will. Let us try to see the deeper mean- 
ings, too. Let us think into things. ‘As a man thinketh, so 
isitie.’ 


A man should be judged, not by his caste or creed, 
The meat he eats, the vintage that he drinks; 
Not by the way he fights, or loves, or sins 
But by the quality of the thoughts he thinks. 


EA rao Roo Let 
WILL AND HABIT 


IT is difficult for us to learn that the universe is under law 
so far as we are concerned. We recognize it when others are 
concerned but when it comes to us we often think that in some 
way we can “get by.” Others who violate the laws of health 
are sure to have to pay the penalty, but with us it is quite 
different. We can violate the same laws and expect to escape 
the effects. Others are foolish if they invest in wildcat in- 
vestments. They deserve to lose their money, but we have 
inside information. Others cannot get something for nothing 
but we often act as tho we thot we could. We still take a 
chance instead of recognizing the law. “What one sows, he 
reaps” is applied by us to the other fellow, but we think we 
can reap what we have not sown, or sow and not reap. Others 
may get caught in the meshes of the law but not we. We know 
a short cut, and so on. 

But there is no law that is so inviolable as “Whatsoever a 
man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Law must be obeyed or 
we must take the consequences. It matters not whether it 
deals with business or with mental development. Success does 
not come by chance; it comes as the result of earnest effort. 
If we succeed in making clear to you that the law of compen- 


sation always holds; that the laws of mental development 


never change; that men do not become wise just by wishing, 
but thru sincere and continuous effort, and can make plain the 


way in which that effort must be expended in order to secure 
183 


184 PRAGUIGAD Roy CHOLOGY 


the best results, we shall have accomplished a most satisfac- 
tory result. 

We have seen how the mind operates in producing per- 
cepts, concepts, judgments, etc. We have seen that memory, 
imagination, reflection are carried on according to certain laws 
or principles. The question now is, “Are we applying those 
principles in our own cases, or are we just reading about 
applying them?” A rule is of no use unless used. That is, 
we come to face the question of whether as a result of our 
study we are modifying our method of action or are going on 
in the same manner as before. 

Actions.—We judge men by their actions. If one sticks 
to a task until it is completed, we say he is persistent. If one 
proves honest and truthful, we say he is reliable. If he keeps 
his head in emergencies, we say he is self-controled. We 
act today as we do because we acted as we did yesterday and 
how we shall act tomorrow depends upon how we act today. 
We have seen that as one thinks, so he acts. If his thinking 
is inconsistent, inaccurate, his acting will be hard to foresee. 

Will and Action.—Will and action are closely related. 
Will concerns itself with action. We determine, or will to do, 
and then act. When we “determine” there is an energy re- 
leased that tends to find expression in action and this process 
may be repeated so often that when an order is given, we act 
without conscious decision, or determination. I recall a man 
in my home town years ago with whom the boys used to have 
sport. He was a veteran of the Civil war, having served for 
nearly four years. He enlisted when he was sixteen or seven- 
teen years of age. During the four years, or so, of training, 
he became so machinelike in following commands that he would 
obey unconsciously any order with which he was familiar. He 
used to carry his dinner with him to his work and the boys 
used to torment him by catching him leisurely walking along, 


VIE AN DEA Be 185 


unsuspicious of any attacks or orders. Then one of them 
would call, “Attention,” and instantly the man would stand 
erect, arms at his side, and the dinner pail would be dropped, 
and often the food spilled upon the ground. The ideas which 
the command aroused controlled his actions. It took almost as 
much time and effort to train himself out of obeying com- 
mands as it did to acquire the ability to obey instantly and 
automatically. 

Will and Motive.—Motive is the thing that beckons us 
on. We used to regard it as something that drove us for- 
ward. It is the object of desire, the thing to be attained or 
secured. The idea which has become the supreme object of 
our desire we call our ideal. It is our conception of how things 
ought to be. 

The will is closely related to the motive because it de- 
termines which motive shall become the strongest by selecting 
the idea that shall be allowed to hold the field of consciousness. 
The idea that we select for the field of consciousness receives 
all the energy that can be released. We have seen that every 
idea, when it comes into consciousness, releases a certain 
amount of energy and that the energy tends to impel to action. 
Thru attention the will can put energy into a motive and make 
it effective. 

Will and Neurons.—One’s will depends upon his neuron 
patterns and they depend upon his inheritance and training. If 
one has had little training or a very limited experience, his 
neuron patterns will be few and not very complex and his 
responses will be in accord with them. If there are no clear 
cut pathways thru the jellylike substance of the brain, there is 
bound to be a weak and vacillating will. 

We see this is true when we recall that one’s ideas depend 
upon the association of neuron patterns. The more complex 
the patterns are, the more ways of escape there are for any 


186 PRA PTO ATE sy (Lo IL © (nan 


stimulation. Where we find a person without ideas, he is 
weak-willed. He has no idea what to do in an emergency be- 
cause he has no paths to follow. So he just stands in utter 
amazement. It is here that training in “life saving’ and in 
“first aid to the injured” proves of so much value. Sets of 
neuron patterns are so well worked into the material of the 
brain that in case of accident these patterns are at once aroused 
and action follows, while the one without such training stands 
by utterly helpless, altho earnestly desiring to do something. 

Children and feebleminded are led astray because they do 
not have a good stock of neuron patterns and so, not being able 
to arouse ideas in opposition to the suggestions made, do the 
only thing that seems reasonable to them, follow the sugges- — 
tions. They are as easily led by good as by bad suggestions. 

The Will.—Let us now inquire a little into the nature of 
the will. Will is so closely related to the other powers of the 
mind that we cannot find the line of demarkation. The blending 
or overlapping of these powers 1s like twilight. We cannot 
tell at just what instant of time it ceases to be day and becomes 
night. There is a twilight zone in which it is neither day nor 
night. It is like trying to determine just the instant a youth 
becomes a man. We know that day does pass into night, and 
the youth does pass into adulthood, altho we cannot tell the 
exact instant. So we find all the powers of the mind inter- 
mingling and overlapping. Feeling, willing, thinking are all 
present in every mental reaction. Sometimes feelings are 
aroused to such a pitch that both the other powers are almost, 
if not quite, in abeyance, and so with the other powers. 

I think we may say that will is the motor element in feel- 
ings and in reflection. Will seems to be the whole mind in 
action. It may be in action with respect to something external 
which we call its environment. It may be an action in response 
to some reflection which at the time was not caused by externa] 


WILL AND HABIT 187 


environment. We may call such an instance a response to an 
internal environment. That environment each one builds for 
himself just as he interprets the external for himself. No two 
persons interpret the external environment the same. No two 
make the same interpretation of the same neighborhood be- 
cause the internal environment of each is different. One sees 
in his environment things and influences which another does 
not see at all. 

Types of Will.—As we study people, we see there are 
several types of will. By this we mean that while the essen- 
tials of the will are the same in all of us there are certain 
elements exaggerated in one, and other elements exaggerated 
in another. There are three types generally recognized. They 
ate: 

(1) The Explosive—This type includes the dare-devils. 
Those who seem never to sense danger. Others may be killed 
but they will not be. They never debate, never hesitate. They 
act upon impulse, upon one idea like the boy who threw the 
stone and broke the window. If such can be led to reflect, 
they often lose courage completely. 

(2) Obstructed—tThis type includes the over-cautious. 
They are so afraid of doing the wrong thing that they do 
nothing. The impulses are seldom strong enough to secure 
effective action. They can find so many reasons why they: 
should not act. They believe in letting well enough alone. 
While those of the first type are not deterred because others 
have failed, those of this group are deterred for that very 
reason. They are like the turning of the tide. You cannot 
tell whether it is ebbing or flowing. 

(3) Normal.—This is a combination of the two. The 
average man who weighs carefully but who acts at the proper 
time. He is the man of balance, one in whom the spirit of 
_ caution and the spirit of combat are well blended. He realizes 


188 PRAGTICAT (PSY CHOLOGY 


that one who never makes mistakes never makes anything, so 
exercising a reasonable degree of caution, weighs all factors 
carefully and then acts. 

Will and Habits.—Will-power is a habit. One who has 
formed the habit of acting upon every good impulse, has a 
dependable will and is acquiring increased will-power. One 
acquires that habit by making action follow closely upon the 
heels of decision until the habit has been firmly formed. De- 
cision is built up out of thousands of little tasks actually per- 
formed, not by thinking about performing them. Unless these 
little tasks are done, no great one will ever be. Unless one 
forms the habit of acting upon the minor or less important 
decisions, he can never hope to arise to action upon great and 
important questions. Crises do not make heroes. They just 
present them to view. 

Habits.—Habits depend upon the fact that the nervous 
system tends to act as it has acted before. Our habits depend 
upon what we do and what we have done. Habit is our cus- 
tomary way of doing anything. It is the way things have 
themselves. No habits are ever formed except by action. One 
may think often of doing a thing, or of forming a habit of 
this or that, but without action the habit is never formed. As 
we saw in an earlier chapter the mind expresses itself in bodily 
activity and it can express itself in no other way. The only 
habit we can form by doing nothing is the habit of doing 
nothing. Habit is action performed with the least amount of 
consciousness possible. We can do a thing so often in the 
same way that it becomes purely automatic. The only thing 
necessary to secure the performance is to start the process. It 
completes itself. 

Basis of Habit.—The basis of habit, as has been inti- 
mated, is in the brain patterns. Hence, there is a physical 
basis for habit and the more perfectly the physical man func- 


WILL AND HABIT 189 


tions the more satisfactory service he can secure from these 
processes which he turns over completely to habit. We should 
make habits our servants and not allow them to become our 
masters. That is, we should not turn any of our ways of doing 
things so completely over to habit that we lose the right to 
choose to do differently on occasion. Habit tends to make us 
what our actions are. We judge men by their actions because 
we go on the supposition that one acts as he does because he 
has sometime, now, or in the past, chosen so to act. So we see 
the man in the act. Someone has said, ‘““A man’s actions are 
a picture book of his creed.” You do not need to ask a man 
what he believes about many things. Live with him a while, 
study his actions and reactions and you will know what he 
believes. 

Forming Habits.——Most of our habits are formed with 
little or no thot. Impulse is at the foundation of much of 
our life as fixed by habit. This is very unfortunate. Some- 
one should have given careful attention to the formation of 
our habits. We were too young to sense the importance of 
the right way of doing things. But now we can see that in 
early life is the time when deliberate attempts should be made 
to direct the formation of habits. Time to the child in early 
years is of little value. It is the time when all the time-con- 
suming habits and processes should be firmly fixed in his ner- 
vous system. Well formed habits of eating, sleeping, playing, 
dressing, working, handling tools, etc., should be made as 
nearly automatic as possible. This enables one to turn over to 
the lower nervous centers the performance of the routine things 
of life. A nervous system that functions properly is a great 
asset to anyone. It is an important factor in self-control. 

Whatever acts are likely to be repeated often should be 
carefully thot out so as to decide upon the best way of doing 

them so that from the first time the best way may be followed 


190 PRACTICAL AP SY OHO ty: 


and made automatic. The difficulty in forming a habit that 
is not the best way of acting means that sooner or later we 
shall want to change. We can change and get on very well, 
but when a crisis arises or we are a little over fatigued the 
old habit arises to claim its mastery over us and we surrender. 
The old brain paths were deeply laid as they should be, but 
they were wrongly laid as the should not be. 

Economy of Habit.—We all know that conscious atten- 
tion to any detail for any length of time is fatiguing and when 
fatigued we lose interest. We are so constituted that we 
shift from the conscious to the subconscious processes just as 
fast as possible, and on the way from the conscious to the sub- 
conscious is habit. As we have noted walking, eating, dress- 
ing, etc., are all habits.. These often are carried yonpwith 
scarcely any attention because they become so nearly automatic. 
We know of persons who have walked in their sleep and 
talked in their sleep being completely unconscious of doing 
either. 

The reason that it is economical to form habits is that 
after the habit is formed any stimulus that disturbs the sen- 
sory nerves does not need to travel to the brain. The path has 
been traveled so often that when a ganglion in the spinal cord 
is stimulated it seems to know what answer is to be returned. 
It is as tho a minor employe in the office would say, “You 
need not wait to see the head man. I know what he will say. 
Go ahead and do it.”’ So the ganglion having been aroused so 
many times by similar stimuli and always having received the 
same answer does not wait for the message to go to the brain 
and back but orders action at once. This saves time and 
energy and often without arousing consciousness at all. Hence, 
habits simplify life by making it, to a degree, automatic. 

The difficulty with many persons is that they cannot leave 
things to habit. They must give conscious attention to every 


WILL AND HABIT 19! 


detail and this wears them out. Neurotics and neurasthenics 
are in this class. They just cannot let go of anything. The 
result is that physically and nervously they are constantly be- 
low par. They cannot sleep. They cannot lie down. They 
cannot sit up with comfort. They are never at ease. 

Habit Formation is Progressive.—Habit formation con- 
stitutes the essence of education and should be done in child- 
hood, as we have already noted, but if one has not formed 
right habits while young, he should form them now. It is 
better late than never in forming habits. A successful busi- 
ness man has acquired a certain attitude of mind. The edu- 
cated man has acquired a certain type of mind, certain hopes, 
ambitions, and desires and these he has been acquiring thru 
the years. They did not come to him ready made. He has 
made them habitual. You can do the same by serious devo- 
tion. Men do not form valuable habits and set right ideals 
without care and devotion. We hear it said that a certain man 
is devoted to tennis, another to baseball, another to his fam- 
ily, another to literature, another to business. These devo- 
tions are all in the line of progressive habit formation. We 
do not so often hear of men being devoted to a life of morals, 
ethics, and religion in the sense that they are devoting all 
their energies to the attainment of a splendid character as 
others are to the development of a business. One makes 
habitual whatever he attends to. Practice makes perfect. 
Someone has said, ‘““Young man, be careful what you pray for. 
When you get old you may get it.” This is true with regard 
to habit. Indifferent prayers are often answered. Devotion 
brings its reward. 

Some of Our Habits.—Many of us are possessed of cer- 
tain habits that we rather enjoy, and yet many of these habits 
are a clear indication of our slavery to custom. We are quite 
inclined to believe a thing today because we believed it yester- 


192 PRACTICAL PS¥ CHOLOGY: 


day. We have had some experience that makes us different 
than we were then but we are quite satisfied to let well enough 
alone. We are all quite inclined to exaggerate the amount of 
work we do and the number of hourse we work. We are alla 
little inclined to brag about how early we get up, etc. We 
reason often from insufficient data. Our logical processes may 
be accurate, but our facts too few, but why bother about a few 
facts. We are willing to accept the conclusions of others about 
politics, business, religion. We talk continuously about being 
consistent without realizing that to be consistent is to be ever- 
lastingly inconsistent. These are all bad habits and most of us 
do not try to break them. 

Openmindedness.—Openmindedness is a virtue in this as 
in every other day. So much is this recognized that many 
wish to be thot openminded who have not thot a new thot in 
years and who have no patience with a new point of view. 
Such persons do not grow. They have become stunted in their 
mental life and do not know it. 

Let us determine that we will not fall into such a group. 
The openminded man is always on the alert for new evidence 
bearing on the case, whatever the case may be. He is always 
on the lookout for information. He is not afraid of having 
his faith upset. He knows that we send boys and girls to 
school to have their faith upset. They go to college for the 
same purpose. Those who decry the upsetting of faith forget 
that all the advances civilization has made have come about 
because someone has been continually upsetting faith. They 
have upset faith in the old science, in the old politics, in the 
old economics, in the old forms of religion, in the industries, in 
the old business, in the old eduaction and many of those who 
have profited most by the upsetting in one line make the biggest 
fuss because there is some upsetting in other lines, but the 
world moves on in spite of their protests. 


WILL AND HABIT 193 


Many of us acquire a stock of knowledge when we start 
out and then continue on thru life without much effort and 
little result in adding to that stock. But one must cultivate 
some intellectual pursuit or fall into a rut, and a rut dug a 
little deeper becomes his grave. 

Fixity of Habit—We ought to be able to inhibit the habit- 
ual when we desire. It is well for us to resign ourselves to 
habit if we are sure of the conditions in which we are placed, 
but we ought to retain enough control over even the habitual 
practices of life to be able to change when we find ourselves 
in new conditions. Children and feebleminded are seldom 
able to meet new conditions. They can be trained to do cer- 
tain things under certain conditions, and it is a splendid thing 
that they can be so trained, but they are helpless when a new 
set of conditions arises unless someone is near to advise them 
what to do. 

The neurotic person is in a good deal the same situation. 
His habits have become so fixed that he cannot abandon them. 
The past is his master. The neuron patterns of former days 
were so firmly fixed that he cannot respond to stimuli of the 
present except as he interprets them in terms of the old neuron 
patterns. He has suffered an arrested development in nerve 
impulse as the feebleminded has in neuron development. He 
has the years but not the power of adjustment. It is danger- 
ous for one to live too long with yesterday, or to make too 
much of today. Yesterday and today should serve to inspire 
us for tomorrow and to release mental energy to enable us to 
conquer the future. 

Perseverance.—Perseverance is prolonged effort with in- 
tervals of rest. It involves long hours and often many weary 
years to those who look on, but to the man who is in search of 
a great secret of nature, an invention, or a process, the years 
do not seem so long. One who has formed the habit of finding 


194. PRACTIGATSGRS VCO Cae 


an interest in the search so that he finds some satisfaction in 
the journey as well as in the destination is the one who per- 
severes, 

Daguerre spent fourteen years trying to make the image 
remain on glass. He suffered and his family suffered with 
him. They sold furniture to buy chemicals and often went 
hungry, but Daguerre had set out on the “Research Magnifi- 
cent” and he needed no urging. Fourteen years was a short 
time to look back upon in the face of victory. William Wil- 
berforce arose in the British Parliament and moved that slaves 
in the British colonies should be free. No one else favored 
the motion. Each year thereafter for thirty-five years he made 
the same motion. The thirty-fifth year the motion prevailed. 
That seems like real perseverance. 

We often hear persons say when listening to a great pianist, 
“T would give everything if I could play like that.” But they 
do not mean it. They would not practice four hours a day 
for twenty years. One says he wishes he knew as much 
science ‘as another whom he knows. Then instead of delving 
into science, he goes to the “movies.’’ One wishes he could 
sell goods like the one who won the last prize. How much 
does he wish it? Enough to set himself at the mastering of all 
the fundamental principles of salesmanship and their appli- 
cation? Enough to learn every fact about the product and 
the processes that enter into its manufacture? Enough to 
learn every use for which it is designed and every purpose it 
will serve? 

In most cases such as these what is really meant is that one 
wishes that he could have the rewards that come from per- 
severance without persevering. One would like to have the 
plaudits of the multitude without deserving them. Sucha one 
is like the man who, being elected to public office, glories 
in the honor “thrust upon him” and then shirks all the re- 


WILL AND HABIT 195 


sponsibility that goes with the office. Perseverance depends 
upon will-power. 

Second Mental Wind.—We are all familiar with the fact 
that often when we seem quite fatigued, we in some way or 
other pull ourselves together and go on at a more energetic 
and determined pace than before. We seem less tired than 
we were. It is with the mind as it is with the body. One 
starts to run a long distance race. After a few minutes he 
begins to feel fatigued, out of breath, and then all of a sudden 
he seems to take on a renewed lease of life. He breathes 
easier, his stride lengthens, and he really begins to run. It 
seems then as tho he could go on all day at that pace. 

So with the mind. When one is paying close attention to 
a difficult problem of study or business, he begins to feel brain 
fag, tired, lazy, ‘“‘all in.”’ Then saying to himself, “This will 
never do. I must get this piece of work finished,” he goes at 
it with a renewed energy that is double that of his previous 
effort. 

These reactions indicate and a mental “second wind” is 
evidence that we all have more physical and mental energy 
than we ordinarily use or suspect we have. They indicate a 
reservoir of reserve power that we are not quite sure about. 
- But the psychologist and the physiologist have learned some- 
thing about them that are of value to us. 

The physiologist has learned that certain glands of the 
body secrete and pour into the circulation certain fluids that 
tend to intensify action. These secretions poured into the 
circulation really furnish increased fuel for the muscles, and 
as a result they help “get up more steam.” It is thru the 
emotions that these demands are made. Anger, joy, sadness, 
pleasure, prospects of success, all exert a strong influence upon 
these glands. 

The psychologist has learned that these same emotions 


106 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


arouse an increased nervous energy that may be poured into the 
brain areas when needed for thot and action. This energy 
arouses an increased number of associations, disturbs more 
neuron patterns, releases more ideas, makes the flow of ideas 
easier, and puts all of them at our immediate command. In 
this condition we go on turning out an increased quantity of 
work without the attendant feeling of fatigue. 

Fatigue.—Fatigue is an attendant of continued exertion. 
It is partly a condition of the mind and partly a condition of 
the body. Often we feel tired all over. A large number of 
sensations come from everywhere. Our emotions are not 
easily aroused. Ideas come slowly. They are apt to be inac- 
curate, and we have no pleasure in them. Many times we are 
more tired than we think we are and often we are not nearly 
so tired as we feel. In such a condition the will-power is 
weak. It is difficult for us to determine to do. We are list- 
less, indifferent. 

Cause of Fatigue.—The exercise of muscles breaks down 
tissue and releases into the blood carbon dioxide and lactic 
acid. These are often referred to as toxic poisons. Thru 
fatigue the cell body of the neuron, instead of being round 
and pinkish in color, becomes gray and reduced in size with 
jagged edges. There is an accumulation of waste products 
in the tissue of the muscles. All of these together produce 
the effect which we call fatigue. Rest gives an opportunity for 
the removal of these poisons and enables the body to re- 
cuperate. 

Massage and Fatigue.—Massage is one of the best ways 
to remove the poisons from the system. Ten or fifteen min- 
utes of massage will rest the tired muscles more than two or 
three hours of sleep. The physical trainer knows this and 
always makes use of massage upon arms, legs, and bodies of 
his men who are in training. What massage does is to hurry 


WILL AND HABIT 197 


on the flow of the blood that sweeps out the poisons which 
are destroyed on the way as filth is destroyed in running 
streams of water. With the toxic poison removed, the neu- 
rons can compel the muscles to do better work with less effort. 

Sleep.—Sleep rests the nerves, but so long as ideas keep 
running thru the mind the blood is driven into the brain and 
that keeps one awake. Too much thinking or too much exer- 
tion tends to prevent sleep. If the blood can be driven from 
the brain, the neurons will be less disturbed and the person can 
go to sleep and secure rest for both muscles and nerves. It 
is a good plan for one who is inclined to be restless to do some- 
thing to bring on muscular fatigue. The fatigued muscles 
demand blood, which will be drawn away from the brain. A 
hot water bag at the feet or a cold one at the head will help. 
A hot bath will drive the blood to the surface of the body. A 
cracker or two eaten just before going to bed will call the 
blood to the stomach and away from the brain. 

Monotony puts us to sleep. We are not interested in what 
is going on. Hence, we are without interesting ideas at the 
time. The brain is not working. There is no demand for 
blood. The neurons grow pale and get sleepy and we follow 
suit, but let someone yell that the building is on fire and 
instantly we are awake. We can put ourselves to sleep by 
thinking monotonous thots, repeating the same thing over and 
over. Think of black or count. Of course some neurons of 
the brain never sleep, but the ones we think with do sleep in 
order to regain fresh vigor. Of course, when we are tired we 
are breaking down tissue faster than we are building it up. 
If we have sufficient sleep, we awaken rested and ready for a 
good day’s work. 

We have referred in another chapter to how one can 
awaken at a certain hour as he determines. One can go to 
sleep by a similar process. When it is time to go to bed even 


198 PRAGA is YI IS 


tho he does not feel sleepy, but knows that he needs rest, if he 
will suggest to himself that is bed time, and proceed to deliber- 
ately get ready for bed saying to himself, ‘It is bed time. I 
am going to bed and goto sleep. I need rest and must get up 
refreshed and ready for a good day’s work tomorrow.” He 
will find himself gradually quieting down, the muscles gradu- 
ally relax as he is preparing for bed, and by the time he is 
ready for bed he is ready to go to sleep. He has willed himself 
to go to sleep and he goes. The mental preparation for sleep 
is one that is often overlooked. 

Incentives and Their Power.—Ideas release energy. 
James says, “The more.the mind does, the more it can do.” 
We all know that we can do more than we have ever yet done. 
We can know more than we know now. We can be more than 
we are. It is largely a matter of determination and of incen- 
tives. Under proper incentives one can do two or three times 
as much without getting more fatigued. Sidis, specialist in 
nervous and mental diseases, says he has never met a case of 
mental trouble caused by too much thinking or overstudy. 
Nervousness is caused by worry, emotional excitement and lack 
of interest in the thing one has to do. Then, it gets on one’s 
nerves. We all know persons sickly and frail who have for 
one reason or another been obliged to assume heavy respon- 
sibility and we have seen them grow strong and rugged under 
the load. Crises not only draw upon what reserve power one 
has but they help to create new power. 

Lift to Higher Levels.—One feels that he can do better 
and reach greater success if it is only worth doing, if the motive 
for action is sufficient, but he can make the motive sufficient. 
You form your own ideas. You select the material that you 
allow to form the basis of your conscious life so you can make 
the motive sufficient to require your best efforts. Having such 
a motive and then expending continuous effort in its attainment 


WILL AND HABIT 199 


will lead to a higher level of life, and in due time one forms 
the habit of living on that higher level. 

Young people are quite prone when questioned about the 
things they do to ask, ‘“What’s the harm?” That is the wrong 
question. What should be asked is, ““What’s the good?” Is 
there anything positive, any really good thing to result? It 
makes all the difference in the world as to one’s attitude toward 
the right ideal. 

Deliberation.—What do you most desire in life? To 
answer that question requires intelligence. One must have 
some knowledge in order to give a satisfactory answer, whether 
it is about business, professions, or what not. Knowledge 
always arouses desire and desire indicates the path that is likely 
to be followed by the will. Deliberation is an important ele- 
ment in the matter. Suppose the matter comes up of my taking 
a day off. What is involved? There may be an excursion up 
Pacaiver. Ii I/take a day off I can'go. The-tfare is $1.50, \ I 
am receiving $2.50 a day. I shall not want to go alone. I 
want to take a young lady friend with me. That means $3.00 
for fare and lunches for two and some other little expenses 
plus the loss of a day’s wages. If I do not take the day off I 
will save all of the prospective expenses and the day’s wage. 
I must deliberate more or less in order to reach a decision that 
later I will not regret. Deliberation is a process of both the 
intellect and of the will. The intellect compares as we saw 
when we discussed the processes of judging. The will holds 
the ideas in consciousness or dismisses them. After I have 
deliberated, I must choose, decide. Decision is always the end 
of the process of deliberation and it always requires will- 
power. To be of any value, decision must be followed by 
action. Many make decisions and never carry them out. 
Action is the real end to be sought, not inaction. Resolves 
without action are worthless, 


200 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


Notice, I said action is the real end to be sought. Many a 
person who cannot do as he would like to do becomes inactive. 
He sits and mopes over the fact that he has somehow been 
thwarted in his desires. The young lady would not go with 
him on the excursion, or something else goes contrary to his 
plans and so he is discouraged and disheartened, does not care 
now whether or not he works. He becomes inactive or very 
much less active. When the real remedy is to become even 
more active. If he cannot do as he had planned then plan to 
do something else. How many times I have known of persons 
who have planned a day’s picnic and then it would rain and 
the day would be spoiled for them. They sat in a grouch all 
day, stormed worse than the weather and made everyone sour 
and sad. If they had only had sense enough to have made 
other plans when it began to rain and put their energy into 
increased action instead of grumbling and inaction they would 
have spent a happy day in spite of the storm. 

Inhibition.—Of course one cannot do everything he thinks 
of doing. If every motor idea went into action, one could not 
live long. Everyone of us is familiar with the process by 
which we drop out of thot many of the ideas that occur to us. 
We inhibit, restrain, or divert them into other channels and 
give them no further thot. Inhibition is a late acquirement of 
the race. In all the past ages the race has followed instinct 
and impulse without inhibiting any ideas. Savages, children, 
and imbeciles, cats, dogs, and other animals inhibit almost no 
actions. You pulla cat’s tail just in fun and you get scratched. 
You step on your pet dog’s toe and he will bite. Inhibition is 
at the foundation of self-restraint and of even temper, but 
coupled with the idea of inhibition, the not-to-respond-notion, 
should be the idea of do-something-else-notion. 

Will and Breaking Habits—Most New Year’s resolu- 
tions consist of deciding to “quit.” Quit smoking, chewing, 


WILL AND HABIT 201 


drinking, swearing, etc. Occasionally we decide to “begin” 
doing something. The first means breaking a habit; the sec- 
ond making a habit. We have learned long since that we 
cannot overcome a bad habit with nothing, that is, inaction 
will not succeed. The normal man is born to activity. There 
are at least four things that must come into consideration if a 
bad habit is to be broken. 

(1) Want to Break It.—In all too many instances one 
would like the exhilaration that comes from the bad habit if 
he could only get rid of the effects that are bad or that his 
friends or employer does not like. But there is little prospect 
of getting rid of a bad habit until one definitely makes up his 
mind that he wll be rid of it. 

(2) Substitute Another.—Nature abhors a vacuum in 
actions as well as in material things. Life cannot be left with 
an “aching void.” ‘The devil finds some mischief for idle 
hands to do” is psychologically true even tho the idea of per- 
sonal devil has lost its standing in twentieth century thot. Are 
you going to break a habit? Have you made up your mind 
about it? Have you willed to break it? Well, and good. 
What are you going to put in its place? You must put some- 
thing. You must decide what you are going to do in place of 
the bad habit, when you will do it, and how. 

(3) Do Not Worry Over the Bad Habit.—Bad habits 
left to themselves die of “dry rot.’ Set yourself at the new 
task, the one you are substituting for the old. Give your atten- 
tion to that and the old will disappear. Psychologists have 
learned that the continual “don’t” to children is the wrong way 
to train them. Many children are brought up with a continuous 
string of “Don’t do that.” ‘Now, don’t do that.” The con- 
tinual emphasis upon the negative arouses resentment on the 
part of anyone. Keep the positive in mind. Let the negative 


202 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


go. Instead of saying to yourself, “I am not going to get 
drunk,” say, “I am going to keep sober.” Every time you think 
of getting drunk, the idea of the liquor and its taste is brought 
into consciousness. We have seen that every idea releases an 
impellent energy that tends to find expression in bodily activity. 
Keep the positive idea in consciousness and that will tend to 
find expression in bodily activity and it will crowd the old idea 
out of mind and out of life. 

(4) Right Mental Attitude.—The right mental attitude 
must precede the performance of the act. Not only what is 
to be done but the reason for it and the way to do it. Change 
of viewpoint is the only way to reformation and breaking old 
habits and forming new ones is a reformation, no matter what 
the habit may be. One must have, as we shall see later on, a 
conscious, reasoned control. The will holds in mind the result 
of reflection and opens the way to a new set of actions. 

Will and Knowledge.— What one does depends upon what 
he knows and in general what one knows depends upon what 
he wills to know. Ideals grow out of ideas. One who has 
little or no idea of morals has no ideals into which moral ideas 
fit. If one is to succeed in business, profession, or in making 
an all round man of himself, he must acquire facts of knowl- 
edge and their relationships. One must increase his self-con- 
sciousness by extending his ideas. He must not only will to 
do this but must find the way to do it. If it is industry he 
must know the relation of all parts or departments to each 
other. If it is in the field of education he must know the fun- 
damental principles of the various subjects and their relations. 

The acquiring of this knowledge is not so much a 
matter of time as it is of method. For years I have used 
and recommended a scheme or plan of reading, somewhat as 
follows: 


WILL AND HABIT 203 


THE FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE 


> 
oo | 
a 
i) 
2 
9 
3 
~< 





The entire field of knowledge may be divided into five 
groups, ViZz.: 


1—MATHEMATICS 3.—BIOLOGIC SCIENCE 
2.—PHYSICAL SCIENCE 4.—SOCIOLOGIC SCIENCE 
5.—LITERATURE AND ARTS 


Keys to the field of knowledge are: 


READING COUNTING LOGIC 


204. PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


Each one of these groups may be divided into a number of 
subjects. For example, physical science may be divided into 
physics, chemistry, physiography, geology, astronomy, agri- 
culture, meteorology, etc. 

Each of these subjects may be subdivided. For example, 
physics may be subdivided into mechanics, liquids, gases, sound, 
heat, light, electricity, etc. 

Every subject named in the chart and others which help to 
complete the subdivisions has a theoretical and a practical 
phase. The one who has profited most by his reading, study, 
and thinking, and is, therefore, the best educated, is the one 
who is able to make a practical application of the theory. 

The heights attained by any people in both these phases in 
each division of the field of knowledge determines the degree 
they have attained in what is called civilization. The same is 
true of the individual. 

No one can understand the present who does not know the 
past. Only those can foresee the future who understand the 
present in relation to the past, for tomorrow will grow out of 
today as surely as today grew out of yesterday. 

If one is to be at home in the world, he must know the his- 
tory of civilization, He must know man’s changing concep- 
tions of the physical universe, of his changing conceptions of 
his own origin, development, and destiny, his changing and 
enlarging conception of God. 

I do not mean that each one shall aim to become an expert 
in every subject of each group, but I do mean that he shall aim 
to know the fundamental principles of each subject so he may 
know what a knowledge of those principles has contributed to 
the civilization of the race, and know the great men who have 
made the discoveries. He ought to become an expert in some 
line and know all that is known in that line. 

The spiral on the chart indicates the advance the race has 


WILL AND HABIT 205 


made in finding itself in the world. The individual may locate 
himself in the same way. 

An acquaintance with the progress of the race is possible 
to anyone who can read, “figure,” and think logically, and who 
will give a few minutes daily to intelligent reading. 

Let him begin by getting in mind the problems with which 
each group deals, and the same with regard to the various sub- 
jects in the group. 

Then let him acquaint himself with the suggested solution 
of the problem, the principles underlying it, and the one who 
discovered the solution. In this way he will come to know the 
history of the subject as well as the underlying principles of it. 

He will soon begin to discover relationships among the dif- 
ferent subjects of a group, and a relationship among the 
groups. He is then facing the question of a philosophy of his- 
tory. He will also find himself raising the question of his 
relationship to the physical universe, to his fellowmen, and to 
God. He is then dealing with the question of a philosophy 
of life. 

Then let him familiarize himself with the ‘‘mountain 
peaks” of the history of ancient, medieval, and modern nations, 
remembering that we cannot separate a people from its geo- 
graphic environment and account for its development, or 
lack of it. Favorable physical conditions precede commercial 
development; commercial development precedes intellectual 
development. Mercantile communities have always been con- 
ducive to the propagation of that. 

In reading one should follow the spiral so as to get a some- 
what balanced course, reading successively in each group. 
_ Even the one who has the advantages of a college education 
will do well to review the history of civilization, and to see the 
progress of the race from the viewpoint of his own life work. 

For one to review his own educational history from the 


206 PRAGTICAL: PSYCHOLOGY 


viewpoint of his life work often reveals assets which have hith- 
erto been unrealized. Half-forgotten truths stand out with a 
vividness that inspires to new and wider application. Often 
new truths burst upon one’s vision, and so he makes his little 
contribution to the advancing civilization of the race. 

For one who wishes to follow ‘such a plan of reading I 
would suggest as a general introduction “Evolution” by 
Thompson and Geddes. As introductions to the other groups 
I would suggest the following: 

Physical Science—‘‘Matter and Energy,” by Soddy. 

Biologic Science—“Origin and Development of Life,” by 

Moore. 

Sociologic Science—‘“The Community,”’ by Lindeman. 

Mathematics—“‘History of Mathematics,” by Ball. 

Language and Literature—“Primer of English Literature,” 

by Brooke. 

As an introduction to ancient civilization I would use “Ancient 
Times,” by Breasted. These may each be followed by general 
text books until one has completed the groups. To keep in 
touch with the advances of the day in these times one should 
read regularly a weekly like the Literary Digest. Of course 
one will know the language and literature of his own business 
or profession, and will make constant use of parts of the 
Bible in his religious life. This may seem like a large task 
but done regularly it is not difficult. It is a real joy to find 
oneself becoming acquainted with the best that has been thot, 
felt, and done, by those who have directed the activities of 
men, and remember that “He that willeth to do shall know” 
~ and knowing shall do more, and be more than is otherwise 
possible. The prize is in the race as well as in the goal. Have 
confidence in yourself, will to do, and move forward, as long 
as life lasts. 


CHAPTER IX 
INTEREST AND ATTENTION 


EVERYONE is familiar with the use of the words inter- 
est and attention. We pay attention to things because we are 
interested in them. One attends to eating, drinking, dressing, 
reading the morning paper and scores of other things daily 
because he has more or less interest in them. In some activities, 
he has less detailed interest than formerly because by having 
paid close attention thru interest he has so trained the muscles 
of his body and the neurons of his brain that they will now act 
without so much attention. His interest may now be centered 
principally upon the end of the action and not so much upon 
the separate acts which lead to it. Habit has assumed, or has 
been given, control of the process and it is successfully carried 
out and the end in which he is interested thereby attained. 

Arousing Attention.—One cannot tell just what is going 
to arouse attention. As one reads a loud noise may occur and 
it will demand and receive the attention for the instant. The 
booming of cannon, or a blast of dynamite arouses the atten- 
tion and compels, for the instant at least, the attention. But 
other occurrences will produce the same result. The turning 
of the key in a door, when one does not know there is another 
person in the house, will startle one with so much force as to 
take the attention from whatever he is thinking of. A whisper 
to one asleep will often arouse him when a louder call and 
considerable shaking would not serve as well. Evidently the 


quantity and the quality of the stimuli have something to do 
207 


208 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


with arousing the attention. The directing of the attention is 
another phase of the matter which we must consider later. 

Stimuli.—There are two sources of stimuli. Those ex- 
ternal to the body which reach the brain by way of the special 
senses and those internal ones which are occasioned by the 
mind itself. There are those who claim that we have no power 
of choice; that we are a machine and nothing more; that when 
certain stimuli strike the sensorium of the body we must react ; 
and that the same is true so far as all choice is concerned. I 
often wonder what kind of stimuli causes such thinking. Evi- 
dently the same kind does not produce the same result in all 
men, for there are many-who maintain that they can choose; 
that they can respond to internal stimuli and pay attention to 
thots and things from which no external stimuli have recently 
come; that one can arouse by action of the mind things to 
which he wishes to pay attention. Both the mechanist and 
the vitalist, when facing a doubtful or serious proposition, act 
as tho they had the right of choice and are actually making up 
their minds. 

Choosing.—No matter what his philosophy everyone feels 
that he chooses, even tho he may argue himself into believing 
that he cannot choose. He chooses the very facts and argu- 
ments with which he tries to prove his case. He has an interest 
in and pays attention to those only which meets his immediate 
needs. You feel that you can choose the events or incidents 
to which you will attend, and I feel the same; and when I say 
feel I do not mean the emotional only. I mean a feeling that 
involves a conscious certainty, one which my experience sup- 
ports. When I am reading, I attend to a few items and omit 
many others. I attend to the thot of the author, but do not 
pay any attention to the quality of the paper, the color and 
quality of the binding, nor the publishers of the book. When 
I observe a landscape, I follow the same general plan. | select, 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 209 


omit, enlarge my interest, increase my attention, withdraw it, 
place it upon something else and do it so often that I cannot 
believe that I am not free to do as I will in the matter. 

Epiphenomenalism.—Epiphenomenalism is a term used 
in connection with a consideration of the directive tendencies 
of the mind which we have so far been regarding as conscious- 
ness. It regards these directive tendencies as essentially physio- 
logical, that is, that thot and consciousness can be fully ac- 
counted for in terms of physics and chemistry, that what we 
call purpose is an illusion. Those who hold to the theory of 
epiphenomenalism believe that consciousness is simply a 
reporter. It knows what happens within certain rather unde- 
fined limits but it can have nothing to do with causing the 
happenings. We just watch the machine go. They hold that 
consciousness is the effect of things but the cause of none. 
It is occasioned by the body but does not act upon the body. 
This would do away with purpose and choice. We are what 
we are because we are, they say, but this does not satisfy most 
of us. 

It is known that the same stimulus applied to two appar- 
ently similar animals or to the same animal at different times 
evokes quite different responses. The reasons for the dissimi- 
larity of responses are not mechanical reasons. J. Arthur 
Thompson says, “On the whole there is no evidence of real 
progress towards a mechanistic explanation of life.” J. S. 
Haldane says, “There is in reality no experimental evidence 
whatsoever that the process (by which living creatures respond 
to a stimulus) can be understood as one of physical and chemi- 
cal causation.” By no juggling of words can we account for 
thinking in terms of matter and motion. 

Whatever explanation may finally be accepted, if any ever 
is, we are quite sure that we know the mind thru bodily activity. 
We have already learned that the mind depends upon the body 


210 PRACTICARSRS YOO) Gayy 


for information about the external world and uses the body — 
to express itself and that unless the body is in good condition 
the mind cannot make much headway in making itself known 
to observers. We all act as tho we believe in the possibility 
of the mind directing the body. In experience consciousness 
means active attention to the task being performed. This 
active attention seems to be a necessary condition of intelli- 
gence. 

Purpose.—When we give time and energy to some plan or 
cause, we know that what we do is clearly actuated by some 
purpose. Early man felt the need of protection from the - 
weather. At first he sought shelter in caves and behind rocks. 
The time was when a storm arose or winter came and he found 
it necessary, or at least convenient, to make something else 
take the place of caves or rocks. He acted to some purpose in 
erecting such protection. No one can make much sense of 
human life who does not recognize the part that purpose plays. | 
Purpose really actuates our conduct and each one of us knows 
it, if experience teaches us anything. We recognize the antici- 
pations of the future as an important factor in purpose. 

One does not need to respond to every stimulus. One 
knows he need not react to every little irritation of the throat. 
He can control coughing. He can prevent winking, control 
swallowing, and many persons can slow the heart beat by pay- 
ing attention. The results are brought about by psychical 
factors and not by physiological ones. 

Among Animals.—As I sit writing this a dog comes run- 
ning down the street. Just as he gets in front of my window 
a voice calls, “Here, Bowser, come here.” The dog stops and 
acts as tho he is trying to decide whether or not he will go 
back. Presently he runs on and then the voice calls again, 
Bowser stops, hesitates, turns and goes slowly home. Who 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION QUI 


shall say that interest, attention, and choice were not all in- 
volved in his stopping, turning, and going home? 

A story is told of an Englishman who used to buy monkeys 
from the London Zoological Gardens. He would pay double 
the price for everyone he bought if he could take the monkey 
home with him for a few days before deciding. He trained 
the monkeys to be actors. He decided upon the ones he wanted 
by the way they paid attention to the tricks he tried to teach 
them. If he found the attention of one easily distracted, he 
would return him to the gardens. Such a monkey was not 
enough interested to make a good actor, but if one paid close 
attention and was interested in what was being taught him, he 
was bought at double the price. 

Humans differ in about the same degree as do monkeys. 
There are some persons who cannot pay attention to anything 
except for very brief intervals. Children are interested in a 
dozen things where an older person is interested in one. We 
have the advantage of the monkey in one respect. We can 
reason matters thru and see what attention will do for us. 
There is no use telling the monkey what attention will do for 
him. Man can exercise his will power and increase his interest 
and attention. 

Things Attended To.—Stern discovered thru many ex- 
periments that children at seven years of age are interested in 
persons and things, that at the ages seven to ten they begin to 
be interested in actions, and from twelve to fourteen they 
develop interests in spatial and other relations. At about fif- 
teen and thereafter they become interested in qualities and 
properties of objects, and the more or less hidden relation- 
ships. They are interested in the search for unities. This is 
seen in the interest that develops in physical science. In physics 
up to this age boys are interested in the relation of pneumatics 
to hydraulics, the relation of heat to light, to sound, and to elec- 


212 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


tricity, etc., but now they become interested in the relation of — 
physics to chemistry, and the relation of these to biology. © 
These new interests lead to some sort of a unified field of 
knowledge, an example of which we saw in the scheme for 
reading in an earlier chapter. Men are beginning to recognize 
the need qf a similar interest in industry, one which shall, 
enable each worker to see the relation of his part of the work 
to the finished article, a unity in diversity. 

Scope of Attention.—Psychologists use a machine or 
apparatus with a disk which may be revolved at rapid speed. 
The revolving disk has slits in it thru which objects can be 
seen. The apparatus can be so timed that an exposure of 
1/100 to 1/5 of a second may be secured, a time so short that 
the one tested does not have time to count the objects seen 
thru the slit. He is able to get only a glance, so to speak, of 
the objects. At best one can see and recognize only four or 
five objects at a time. It is interesting to note that while one 
can see only four or five objects, he can recognize four short 
words as readily as four letters. He may recognize more than 
four or five words if they are related so they form a sentence. 
The relation of the words to each other increases the field of 
“meaning” and thereby increases the power and range of atten- 
tion. In our younger days we were taught: 

One thing at a time and that done well 

Is about as good rule as many can tell, 
This is discovered to be true in regard to the attention. One 
object at a time holds the center of attention, but that object 
may be very simple like a single letter. It may be more com- 
plicated like a single word. It may be still more complicated 
like a simple sentence. It may increase in complexity until it 
is a very complicated plan, the whole of which may be held in 
the focus of attention, but it must be maintained as a unity or 
the attention will let go of it. 


a . 


_ 
oa > 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 213 


Attention and Bodily Accommodation.—The body re- 
sponds to the attention. When one going thru the forest 1s 


_ stirred by fear and his attention is fixed upon the sound which 


he hears and which he tries to interpret, he stands perfectly 
still, and breathes so lightly that he makes not the slightest 
sound. His muscles become tense and unconsciously his body 
accommodates itself to the thing to which he is attending. 
Even the glands of the body respond to the same influence. 
Under intense anger the adrenal glands pour their solution into 
the blood which energizes the man so he can do things which 
under more normal conditions he could not do. We try to fix 
our vision on a distant object. We pay attention to it. Imme- 
diately the muscles of the eye begin to adjust themselves to 
meet the situation. 

Our interests narrow and our attention deepens under pres- 
sure. The story of Esau is an example. He returned from 
the chase hungry. His whole interest centered upon food and 
his attention was aroused to secure it. What was a birthright 
worth under such circumstances? What if he should starve 
to death while waiting for it? A mess of pottage was life to 
him, and so he traded the birthright for that in which he had 
an immediate interest. 

From the physiological viewpoint attention is a flow of 
nerve energy into certain neuron patterns instead of into others, 
but beyond that it is a deliberate act of the will, or it may be 
occasioned by the attractiveness of the object which we call 
interest. We pay attention by looking, by listening, by smell- 
ing, etc., and when doing so refuse to pay attention to other 
sights, sounds, odors, etc. 

Selective Factors.—We depend upon the sense organs for 
our knowledge of the external world. We have survived thru 
the years and the race thru the ages with only these few 
avenues of approach of the external world to the mind, or to 


214 PRACTICAL CES YH ORUGN 


the ego within. We react to only a few of the stimuli which | 


strike upon the surface of the body, only a few waves of the 
air cause sound, only a few waves of ether cause color, etc. 
The more clearly previous stimuli have been registered in the 
brain the more readily we pay attention when those same cen- 
ters are again disturbed. A loud noise causes us to pay atten- 
tion because of the intensity of the stimulation. A baby is 
not so easily disturbed by a loud noise as an adult is, because 
of the more completely organized nervous system in the adult. 
The more clearly an impression has been in consciousness, the 
more active the neuron patterns are when again disturbed, the 
more certain they are to arouse attention. We select within 
certain limits ‘only. It is difficult for one to pay attention to 
the problem involved in trying to trisect an angle if he knows 
nothing of mathematics. 

Catching the Attention.—Our attention is under ordinary 
circumstances caught by moving objects. We notice change, 
movement, music, odor, heat, cold, a stuffy room. I find in 
my own case that I have no difficulty in holding my attention to 
my work under almost any circumstances, but there are one or 
two things that always claim my attention and break any thot 
connection I may be following. One of those is when a selec- 
tion from some well-known opera is being played or sung. 


“The Sextette’ from Lucia will take my attention from almost 


anything I am engaged in at the time. A street piano may 
play for an hour and I will not be conscious of it, but let it 
begin the Sextette and immediately I am aroused to a con- 
sciousness of the music and my interest and attention are 
transferred. 

We recognize movement before we recognize the object 
that is in motion. The threshold of consciousness may be a 
little lower in spots, so to speak, or for certain stimuli. A 
moving object in the early history of the race may have meant 





| 
; 


4 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION oie 


enemies and we have learned never to be unconscious to their 
approach. It may be an animal good for food for which we 
have learned to be always on the lookout. 

Confusion arises when the movements are too rapid to be 
attended to. One becomes bewildered and seems to pay atten- 
tion to nothing in particular. Noise, fear, etc., often cause 
confusion, especially if we do not know the source from which 
they arise. 

Attention.—Attention is the focusing of the conscious- 
ness. Any item of consciousness can become an object of 
attention. We attend to it. There is an inner activity in each 
of us which we command, of which we are master. There are 
two kinds of attention: voluntary and involuntary. The in- 
voluntary is more or less closely related to the reflexes, and the 
voluntary to the will. 

The mention of Pershing, geometry, the north pole, or 
League of Nations gains your attention and gains it without 
conscious effort on your part, but if you continue to think of 
them you must give voluntary attention. 

The first is called involuntary attention and is the result of 
the influence of the object itself. Voluntary attention is the 
result of a recognition of the relation of the object to some- 
thing else. It depends upon the variety of one’s experience 
and to some degree upon his mental development. Children 
and imbeciles are unable to give much voluntary attention 
because they do not see relations readily. Voluntary attention 
is governed by 

a. Desire, 

b. Interest. 

c. Will. 
To gain attention and hold it one, a teacher for example, must 
supply the conditions of attention. Those conditions are such 


216 PRACTICAL SP SY CHOLOGY 


as will create a desire, arouse an interest, and secure the activity © 


of the will. 
My desire for listening to a certain speaker may be to learn 
something, or not to appear rude, or because I am to report 





later on his ability as speaker. JI may attend because I have © 


some interest in the organization for which he speaks. I may 
be interested in the subject discussed, particularly to see just 
how he handles it. I may not have any desire to listen, nor any 
interest in the subject so I just make myself listen. 
Interest.— We have given some thot to the will in a pre- 


vious chapter and will not repeat that here. The question of 


interest is of special importance in its relation to the attention. 


Interest is the tendency of the mind to find satisfaction in any 


subject when properly presented. It is finding some relation 
between an object and oneself. It seems to indicate a state of 
feeling, a going out toward the object. One has an interest in 
business, in education, in social position, and finds himself 


going out of himself, so to speak, toward or into the situation © 


in which he has an interest. Real interests arise from activities 
put forth to secure the things desired. These efforts lead to 
self-expression. There is in each of us a feeling that we have 
the ability to attain, a sense of power, a sense of mastery. 
Interest springs from that feeling. To one who has lost his 


“nerve, who feels he is a failure, who thinks he cannot suc- 


ceed anyway, there is no interest. To such a one life is a con- 
tinuous nightmare. 

Effort.—Desire leads to effort and where there is effort 
there is desire. They are two phases of self-expression. De- 
sire in the form of appetites and passions is often uncontrolled. 
Then there is wasted energy, because self-indulgence becomes 
an end in itself. One can hardly conceive of the deadening 
effect of effort without interest. Prisoners breaking stones on 
the highway; men, for punishment, carrying stones from one 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 217 


side of the road to the other and then carrying them back again 
are made desperate. When energy or hope fails drudgery 
comes in. It has sometimes been thot that the will was the 
only means of attaining the goal, that one must drive or be 
driven. But we have discovered that if interest can be aroused 
the goal will be more quickly reached and happiness and 
pleasure will be valuable by-products. 

Natural Interests.—We should search for one’s natural 
interests as a place to begin and make them the basis of the 
character we wish to see developed. In dealing with children, 
we should try to relate them to the life of their day so they may 
function as valuable members of society. This means that we 
must know what the requirements of their day are and how 
they shall be met. This will help us to know what habits and 
customs one should acquire and what interests he should de- 
velop. It will determine what he should be taught in school 
and what position he should be fitted to occupy in society and 
in industry. 

We should follow the same plan with ourselves. Each one 
should make a study of his own most vital interests, discover 
how they fit in with the interests of his community, his indus- 
try, his church, his home, and what further mental equipment 
he needs in order to enable him to secure the fulfilment of his 
desires. 

Divided Interests.—We hear much about singleness of 
purpose, and we know that there should be a dominant purpose, 
one vital interest in life in order to give much assurance of 
success. ‘The business man who dreams of base-ball all the 
forenoon and then goes to the game and worries about his 
business while watching the plays is not making a very hopeful 
bid for business success. He is making a more certain bid if 
he forgets business entirely during the game and forgets the 


218 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


game during business. It is a rare person who has several 
vital interests at a time. 

Often there come times when men face problems of busi- 
ness when their real interests stand out with unexampled force. 
About three years ago a young man who had been in my 
psychology class the year before came to see me. He was 
employed by one of the largest corporations in the country. 
He had been offered a promotion to a position which meant 
quite an increase of salary. This position would let him 
remain in America. At the same time the company had offered 
him a position which would mean that he must go to China 
for three years. It would mean a much larger salary. He had 
a wife and two children. He could not take them to China 
and he could not bear to think of being away three years with- 
out them. We talked over the whole matter together. He 
said, ‘In a few years my children will be old enough to go to 
college and I must make it possible for them to go. 1 must 
earn more money. It looks as tho the China trip will-help me 
more than to stay in America. I do not care to get rich, but 
I do want enough money to give my children every advantage 
possible. Ought I to sacrifice my own pleasure and leave my 
wife to take all the responsibility of them for three years and 
go to China?” I said, ‘All I can do is to help you get all the 
facts before you. You and your wife must finally make the 
choice.” We parted. A little over three years later | was 
called on the ’phone and a voice said it was my friend. He 
had been to China, done a successful piece of work and had 
returned to take a still better position with the same company. 

His case looked like divided interests. His one interest 
was his immediate association with his family. Another was 
to make more money in order that he might do more for them, 
but in reality his one dominant interest was his family. He 
had a secondary interest which was to succeed in his work in 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 219 


order that he might accomplish the first object. He developed 
an interest in his task that enabled him to succeed and which 
led him to find an interest in China which he had not thot pos- 
sible. Real interest arises from the identification of the self 
with the ideal, a satisfaction with the end to be attained. 

End and Means Often Not Close Together.—The end 
and the means whereby it is to be attained are often far apart. 
It may mean three years and leaving the family for three years 
for a trip to China. Many cannot maintain an interest over so 
long a time. Their interests are continually shifting. They 
chase rainbows for a while and then give up and follow some- 
thing else. We see that situation in industry today. It is a 
long way from the small piece to the finished article, so far 
that most workmen cannot maintain an interest sufficient to 
last thru. The finished article does not express the ideas of 
the workman, but of someone else and he has little interest 
in it. 

I recall a young man who some ten years ago came to see 
me about some night-school work. He was a molder’s helper 
in a gray iron foundry and was receiving good wages but 
had become dissatisfied and had lost all interest in his work. 
He could not see any future in the gray iron business. I asked 
him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to study 
stenography. I inquired about his education and found he had 
finished grammar school and of course did not have enough 
knowledge of English to warrant his becoming an expert 
stenographer, of which I reminded him and tried to get him 
to see the time required to master English and stenography 
well enough to assure him a successful career. 

Then I went back to his foundry work. I inquired how 
much he knew about the gray iron business. Did he know as 
much as the man he worked with? Did he know as much as 
the superintendent of the foundry? Was there any reason why 


220 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


he should not know as much about iron as any other man in 
the business? To all of these inquiries he replied in the 
negative. 

I urged him to study iron until he knew as much about the 
subject as he could find out from men and books. He decided 
to do so and began to get acquainted with the processes thru 
which the iron was put after it came to his foundry and why. 
Then he followed back along the line until he reached the 
mine. Then he became interested in the rocks in which the 
metal was found. He began to study geology, then physics, 
and chemistry. 

His interest increased until the young man who thot he 
was in “a blind alley job” found himself upon the great high- 
way of American mining, manufacturing, transportation, and 
trade. Six years from the time he came to see me he was the 
superintendent of one of the largest gray iron foundries in 
America. It was a long way from the position of molder’s 
helper in a small foundry to the superintendency of the larger 
one. The means whereby he maintained his interest was thru 
acquiring knowledge. He was then able to sell his ability 
successfully. 

Training Interest and Attention.—Robert Houdin was 
one of the most skilful magicians of his time, and he became 
especially interested in training his son in observing. This he 
did by arousing his interest and focusing his attention. He 
would have the little fellow observe a domino a fraction of a 
second and then tell the number of spots on the domino. Then 
the father would add another domino and so on until any 
twelve dominoes could be placed upon the table at once and 
with the merest glance at them the boy could name the exact 
total number of spots. 

The degree of interest and attention developed was remark- 
able. The father and son then began observing articles in store 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 221 


windows. They would walk quickly past a window and then 
stop and write the names of all the things they could remember. 
They kept this up until the father could write the names of 
thirty articles and the son forty-eight. 

Taking this ability of the son into account the father de- 
cided he would surprise his audience some evening with it. 
So one evening when he was to entertain the friends of a 
prominent man at the man’s home, the time came. As they 
went thru the library the father asked the son to notice some 
of the titles of the books and where the books stood on the 
shelves. Then when the time came Houdin said to the host of 
the evening, “I will prove to you that my son can read thru a 
wall. Will you lend me a book?” 

Then in Houdin’s own words, “I was naturally conducted 
to the library in question, which I pretended now to see for 
the first time; and I laid my finger on a book. ‘Emile,’ I said 
to my son, ‘What is the name of this work?’ ‘It is Buffon,’ he 
replied quickly. ‘And the one by its side?’ an incredulous spec- 
tator hastened to ask. ‘On the right or the left?’ my son asked. 
‘On the right,’ the speaker said, having a good reason for 
choosing this book, for the lettering was very small. 

“<The Travels of Anacharsis the Younger, the boy replied. 
‘But,’ he added, ‘had you asked the name of the book on the 
left, sir, I would have said, Lamertine’s poetry; a little to the 
right of this I see Crebellon’s Works; below, two volumes of 
Fleury’s Memoirs’; and my son named a dozen books before 
he stopped.” 

Of course the spectators were amazed. The instance shows 
that we may increase the power of attention by being interested 
in what we are trying to learn. 

New Interests.—Many interests prevent narrowness. 
There is a tendency for us all to get narrow as we get old. As 
children we were interested in many things, as we grew older 


222 PRAGLICALT Poy CHOEGG 


our interests became fewer and our centers of interests became 
more definite. We were especially interested in our home, in 
our school, then in our class in school or college. We were 
interested in all the girls in our group. Later we became espe- 
cially interested in one girl, then marriage, a new home, busi- 
ness, and by the time we reach thirty-five or forty years of age 
the dozen interests have given way to three or four at the most 
and we begin to get narrow. We lose interest. The father 
forgets he was once a boy, and so he loses interest in boys’ 
interests. 

Interest is the test of adaptability. Recognizing this tend- 
ency, we should aim to broaden rather than narrow our inter- 
ests. New interests prevent rigidity of mind, and fixity of 
ideas. New interests are aroused thru new ideas and again 
we come back to the fact that “As a man thinketh, so is he.” 
Unless one is constantly on guard to develop new interests thru 
new ideas, custom and habit will become as fixed as instinct 
and there results a rigidity of mind where no new ideas can 
enter. 

The other day I came across the following poem which 
illustrates what the development of new interests may mean. 
A simple turning half way around aroused new ideas and new 


interests: 
I WASH MY DISHES 


Once I washed my dishes with my face to the wall, 
Standing before a dingy iron sink, 

My heart hot with anger against my fate; 

I thought I was made for better things than housework. 
So I raged, and consumed myself with bitterness, 
Until, one day, I turned around, 

And washed my dishes on a table, facing the window. 
Perched on a high stool, like a clerk, 

I looked over a meadow, white with daisies, 

(The farmer says daisies mean poor land) 

But to me the field was beautiful, 

Dotted with daisies and bright green weeds, 

Glinting in the sun like sword blades. 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 223 


I feast my eyes upon them, 

While I wash plates and cups. 

I watch the long road that goes over the hill 

While my hands are in the soap suds. 

Automobiles rush along the road, 

Driven by people bent on pleasure, 

Or going to face death in hospitals, 

Doctors, on errands of mercy and healing, 

Business men meeting appointments, 

While I sit on a stool before the kitchen table 

Washing my dishes, and my thoughts rove over the world and 
beyond, 

To the land of the unreturning, 

For the cross road goes to the cemetery 

Where the one dearest to me lies asleep. 

I look at the bounteous sky, 

The hollyhocks by the fence, red and yellow, 

The gracious trees dotting the landscape. 

There is so much beauty in the world, 

My heart overflows with gratitude, 


As I wash my dishes. 
—SusAN RICE. 


Sources of Interest.—There are three sources of interest: 


1. The physical universe. 
2. Humanity. 


SOc, 


Physical Realm.—We are all interested more than we 
often think in the physical realm. Our food, our shelter, our 
very life is very closely related and associated with it. We 
spend most of our time dealing in one way and another with it. 
Every process of the factory, every experiment of the chemist, 
every observation of the astronomer has to do with it. Every 
pay envelope, every purchase of food or clothing, every item 
of credit, every letter sent, every radio message received are 
indications of our interest in and of our dependence upon 
the physical universe. 

We ought to be even more consciously interested in it than 
most of us are. No child ought to be allowed to grow up with- 
out experience in the application of some form of mechanical 


224 PRACTICAL CROVGHOLOGY 


power. We are living in a technical age. Our civilization has 
been reshaped in the last three or four centuries thru a knowl- 
edge of applied science. There is scarcely anything that so 
puts one at home with his own abilities and capabilities as to 
know he can control some power of nature and make it serve 
him, and this he should be made conscious of thru knowing 
mechanical processes. Every child should be taught to handle 
tools, and then complicated machines like the typewriter, sew- 
ing machine, bicycle, automobile, radio set, and then be made 
familiar with the principles involved. To one who has had 
such experience, the world is a very much more interesting 
place and his interests have increased in number and scope. 
He does not get narrow. 

Humanity.—Humanity is a source of great interest to 
everyone but the hermit. Man is a social being. Industry, 
politics, religion are all based upon the recognition of the inter- 
dependence of men and women. Every boys’ club, every 
Ladies’ Guild, every Rotary Club is evidence of man’s interests 
in men and their doings. Newspaper reporters are vigilant for 
human interest stories. 

We think we are interested in ourselves, but how many of 
us are enough interested in ourselves to find out just what 
progress we make from month to month or from year to year 
in the efficiency with which we perform the work that falls to 
us? Have you worked out a series of tests that will show you 
how you progress? It seems to be a psychologically sound idea 
that no man for his own sake should be allowed to continue 
at a task when there is no further improvement possible for 
him. Interest cannot be maintained and the best effort of the 
man secured unless he can see some improvement in himseli 
and in the way in which he does his work. This is a source of 
human interest, and when we have reached a sound view of 
industry we shall see that the biggest output of any industry 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 225 


will not be the commodities shipped away but the men who 
remain. Making men is the biggest thing in industry. It is 
the biggest thing everywhere. 

Think of your own work. Think of the way you did it 
last year and the year before. Are you doing it better this 
year than ever before? Are you a bigger man than last year? 
How do you determine? Do you determine it by salary? By 
quantity of work done? By the quality of work turned out? 
How do you measure the results? Do you think better this 
year than last? Are your interests broader? How do you 
determine? 

I am often amazed at the inability of men to test their own 
progress, and yet I suppose I ought not to be. The situation 
is somewhat akin to making money. Most of us were taught 
how to earn money, but few of us were ever given definite 
instructions as to how to spend it wisely. Spending money. 
would take care of itself. So most of us were taught to work 
or rather that we ought to work, but few of us were ever taught 
how to measure results, and yet in this day and age when the 
ordinary machine is adjusted to a thousandth of an inch, it 
does not seem amiss that men should discover a way of meas- 
uring themselves and their work. 

It is not unusual for men to ask how they can turn failure 
into success. They do not know why they have failed and 
they do not know how they can succeed, but they have an idea 
that there must be some panacea which by paying a sum of 
money they may secure. It may be a psychology course, it 
may be this or that or the other thing, but until one has interest 
enough in himself to get acquainted with himself he will con- 
tinue to wander around in the tall grass. These problems of 
humanity form a most vital source of interest. 

God.—Every person sconer or later asks himself certain 
questions, such as, ‘“Whence came 1? Why amI here? Where 


226 PRAGTICALSP SY CHLIOLOGyY 


am I going?’ Down thru the ages in one form or another 
these questions have been recurring. Man asks somewhat the 
same questions about the planet on which he lives and as his 
interest develops he acquires facts and then reflects upon them 
and establishes theories to account for the facts. In and thru 
and over all he postulates a being which he calls God. Every 
interest man has reaches finally to the great creator of the uni- 
verse. Every problem of man and of the physical universe. 
arouses an interest in the being and nature of God. Every 
man has some sort of a philosophy of life and each one in- 
volves these three elements or interests: physical universe, 
man, God. 

The Sentinels.—Interest and attention are the two sen- 
tinels that stand at the entrance to the mind and determine 
which ideas may enter and remain. If one has no interest in 
a certain idea, that idea cannot find a place in consciousness. 
If one pays no attention to an idea, it will be bowed out of his 
mental presence. On the other hand, I often hear men and 
women wish they could get interested in this, that, or the other 
thing. They are like persons who wish they could meet the 
King of England, the President of the United States, Jack 
Dempsey, or Charley Chaplin. They cannot find a point of 
contact. There is no one at the door who will admit them. 

One can find a way of meeting persons whom he wishes to 
meet and he can discover ways of developing interest in any 
subject. 

This is of great value to one who finds himself obliged to 
do work which he does not like. If he realizes that in order to 
do the work well he must like it, and that he cannot like it 
unless he becomes interested in it, he will discover that he can 
develop an interest in it. 

About three years ago one of the young men in my evening 
class in psychology came to see me. His father was a manu- 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 227 


facturer and the young man had been a traveling salesman for 
the business. His father had told him he must give up the 
selling and learn the manufacturing end of the business so 
he could carry it on in later years. The young man was quite 
rebellious about it, and thot it most unkind of the father to 
insist. 

I asked the son why he did not tell his father that under 
no circumstances would he go into the factory. He replied 
that he must do as the father said or his father would disinherit 
him. You see, he felt that he must accede to his father’s de- 
mands, so I said, “If you must go into the factory, you must 
become interested, for life is too long for one not to like what 
he must do.” 

I suggested that he begin by studying every activity in his 
department, and its relation to the whole with the idea ot 
improving the department, saying that inasmuch as he was 
going into it he must determine to succeed. He soon found 
himself intensely interested in what he did not like before 
because he had known nothing about it. 

The last time I saw him he had been made assistant general 
manager of the entire factory. Instead of bemoaning the fact 
that he had to do what he did not like he had developed an 
interest and attention that brought happiness. He learned that 
if he could not do what he liked he must learn to like what 
he had to do. 

Concentrated Attention.—Concentrated attention is an 
intense form of attention. It bars from consciousness every 
interest but one. Sometimes it becomes so powerful that an 
abnormal situation arises. Hysteria, anesthesia, amnesia, and 
the various phobias are expressions of concentrated attention. 
Hypnotism is concentrated attention. So unusual do these 
states sometimes appear that one who manifests them is spoken 
of as having a multiple personality, but we have seen that there 


228 PRACTICALRP SY OH ORGY 


is only one mind in each of us no matter in how many ways 
it may manifest itself. What passes for a secondary person- 
ality is a symptom of a disordered mentality, or abnormal 
functioning of a normal mind. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “There are three of each of 
us. There is the man you think I am, the man I want you to 
think I am, and the man I am.” Now I may pay so much 
attention to the second that I almost lose sight of the third. I 
may become so interested in appearing as I want you to think 
me to be that I become quite that person. 

On the other hand, if I know that you think I am all things 
mean and disagreeable, my attention is quite likely to be focused 
upon those things and I become like what I have attended to. 

Personality is developed by means of the things we attend 
to. It is a group of mental states bound together by memory. 
One’s normal life and his normal memory are continuous. The 
mental states of the subconsciousness are contemporaneous 
with those of consciousness but are not connected with them 
by any recollection. This is due largely to the fact that little 
or no interest attached itself to them at the time of stimulation. 

Sustaining Interest and Attention.—In order that inter- 
est may be sustained and attention developed one must get away 
from generalities to things specific, from the abstract to the 
concrete. He must continue to discover new details, and to fit 
them into the whole. One may not have much interest in the 
giant redwood trees of California, but when he discovers that 
when one of those trees was cut down it was found to have 
2425 rings, which indicated that it was 503 years old when the 
Christian era began, 979 years old when the Roman Empire 
fell, 1995 when Columbus discovered America, he begins to be 
interested in one redwood. So it is with every question, no 
matter what it is. The interest is aroused and sustained thru 


INTEREST AND ATTENTION 229 


the recognition of specific details and their relation to the unit 
or object under consideration. 

One must be interested in his employer’s work as well as 
his own part if he is to succeed. Discoveries and inventions 
are made because of one’s interest in plans and processes. The 
discoveries are not yet all made, the inventions are not al] 
wrought out, altho men here and there often think the last 
word has been said and that all that is necessary now 1s to con- 
serve and preserve the past. No one can continue to live on 
the successes of yesterday, no one can grow who thinks only 
the thots of yesterday. It is a fine thing to be able to point to 
a noble ancestor, but as Cicero indicated, it is better to become 
the noble ancestor of others. Pedigree may be a source of 
pride but it does not prevent a dog having tin cans tied to his 
tail. A glorious past is good, but a noble present is better. In 
which are you interested? To which do you pay most atten- 
tion? 


CE AE Ran 
SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 


A NUMBER of times in the preceding chapters we have 
made mention of the subconsciousness, or as it is sometimes 
called, the subconscious mind. In this chapter we shall give a 
little more careful attention to that phase of our life. We are 
all familiar with the fact that at no time are we using more 
than a very small part of our entire brain power, or brain pat- 
terns. We know that we have in mind now only a very small 
part of all that we know. This is often indicated by our 
expressions. We often ask for time to collect our thots, or 
when we have acted hastily we say we did not have time to 
collect our thots. We know that we have stored away some- 
where thousands of experiences of which we have been aware 
in other days, but most of us are not so familiar with the fact 
that there are stored away somewhere just out of reach of 
consciousness many things of which we have never been aware, 
or to speak as the psychologist does, of which we have never 
been conscious. Less familiar are we with the fact that those 
things of which we have never known exert a strong influence 
on what we do and what we think. In reality, then, we see that 
each mind is composed, so to speak, of at least three phases, or 
states, consciousness, subconsciousness and unconsciousness. 
The unconsciousness being our racial and family inheritance 
with which we have never had anything to do and yet which 
is ours. The subconsciousness is the knowledge and skill which 


we have acquired and all of those experiences of which we have 
230 : 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS aint 


been conscious but for the moment are not. Consciousness is 
the awareness of change. 

Cellular Intelligence.—We learned in a previous chapter 
something about “cellular intelligence’ and you will do well 
to turn back and refresh your mind in regard to it now. You 
will find that what we have called mind is very much greater 
in scope than we usually think it is, and that consciousness is 
only a very small part of the mind. We have seen that as life 
developed a sort of division of labor appeared, and one task 
was set off to one set of cells, and another task to another set, 
etc., and that the regular routine tasks later became a sort of 
second nature and the cells did the work without any “‘thot,” 
and so a part of the mind was set free to play upon other things 
or activities. Later these ‘other things and activities’ of the 
mind suggested things to be done by the cells, or by the body 
as a whole and new actions and reactions occurred which in 
some instances at least resulted in the individual being lifted 
to a little higher level of life, or of “livingness.” 

Changes in Organism.—These continued activities of the 
organism, no doubt, brought about some slight changes in the 
organism itself. These changes in structure, however slight, 
would in the long course of development be sufficient to ac- 
count for instinct and reflexes. Of course we have difficulty 
in seeing these changes in structure in the higher forms of life 
because the generations are so long that we can observe only 
one or two or half a dozen generations at most, but if one 
could have a record of a thousand generations of some of the 
higher forms of life, such a record as a trained scientific ob- 
server would make, so that he could compare the last with the 
first generation, no doubt we would find important variations 
which have become hereditary. Anyway changes have occurred 
and these changes are inheritable and the functions of the 
organisms have changed with the structure. We know this 


232 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


from the fossil remains of animal life such as the ancestors of 
the horse compared with the animals of the same line of descent 
that are living today and from the family of pine trees which 
have continued from carboniferous times until now. 

Nerve Memory.—As this development has gone on many 
of the functions that once engaged the entire mind of the ani- 
mal have been turned over to the subconsciousness and the 
process has been continued without disturbing the higher 
powers of the organism. This is possible only on the sup- 
position that continued repetition of an action sets up a nerve 
and muscular memory, an association among the muscular 
fibers and among the neurons of the brain, which on stimula- 
tion repeats the process. This is true in the formation of 
habit and is probably true in the developing of instincts and 
reflexes. Because of this we can say that much that was once 
central in consciousness has in the long process of time lapsed, 
become submerged, or in other words, become instinctive. 

Types of Behavior.—There are in humans all types of 
behavior or of reaction from those that require all the con- 
scious power we have to those that require none, those that 
are carried on without our even knowing about them. We may 
pay as close attention to our digestive processes as we may, 
but we cannot tell just when the stomach has finished digesting 
a meal. We do not know whether or not the liver is at this 
minute secreting bile. The function is called into activity by 
a stimulus of which we, at the time at least, are unconscious. 
We do know when we do some acts which are called instinctive, 
as the bird knows when she builds a nest, and these acts we can 
control to a greater or less degree. There are other acts that 
have become habitual. When the stimulus is applied the 
organism completes the act without our giving further atten- 
tion to the matter. Then there are those processes which are 
new to us, mental and physical, those which arise from facing 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 233 


entirely new situations, environmental or other wise. To these 
we must give conscious attention. Mind has grown from the 
humblest beginnings to adult vigor by turning over to the 
nervous system as soon as processes have been mastered the 
more or less complete responsibility for carrying out the func- 
tions. The nervous system is the instrument for manifesta- 
tion of what is or of what has been in consciousness, but so 
far as we know it does not produce consciousness. 

Mind and Growth of Organs.—As we have seen the 
mind is effected by the growth of every organ. The psychic 
areas are closely related to the motor areas. Muscle culture 
develops brain areas as nothing else that we know of. Chil- 
dren thru imitation of the acts of their elders, thru performing 
the acts, develop the brain areas associated with the muscles 
exercised. We see how essential it is then that in the games 
and recreation of children such variety of activity shall be pro- 
vided as will give the widest possible muscular activity. The 
child who has never learned to play has failed to bring many 
muscles into activity and as a result has failed to develop cer- 
tain brain centers and is heading for a routine job in after 
life. He is bound to be narrow, unadaptable, and quite likely 
inefficient. He is altogether unconscious of the reason. 

Instincts.—There has been no very satisfactory classifica- 
tion of the instincts, and no very definite line established be- 
tween those reactions which are clearly instinctive and those 
that are the result of habit, between those that are innate and 
those that are acquired. There are, however, certain instincts 
that are closely related to self-preservation, such as fear and its 
attendant instinct flight, anger and its attendant instinct pug- 
nacity. Of course there are those appetites which are instinc- 
tive which are also self-preservative, such as hunger, thirst, 
etc. Curiosity is closely associated with the instinct of fear. 
The first reaction to fear is flight. When the animal feels 


234 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


itself safe it turns to investigate the cause of its fear, as we 
have often noticed when horses in the pasture have been 
frightened by a passing train. They will run toward the other 
side of the field and as the train passes and the sound becomes 
less loud they stop, throw up their heads, and watch it out of 
sight. In the course of time they come to feel safe and do not 
move as the train goes by. If in the flight of an animal it 
finds its way blocked, its flight hindered, it manifests another 
instinct, that of fight, and when one comes to feel that he can 
get what he wants thru fight, he is quite apt to become pug- 
nacious and to play the bully until he is licked. Blocking of 
any instinct in man or animal leads to anger and to fight. It 
may not always result in fight, because man has learned that 
sometimes, at least, it is safer, better to control the impulse 
and thus lift the control from the subconsciousness of instinct 
to the conscious control of reflection. This is why the penalty 
attached to the law prevents many from doing the forbidden 
thing. Many a man is kept from stealing because of the pen- 
alty which will follow if he is found out. Many a woman 
observes the customary moral standards of society because of 
the social ostracism which will be visited upon her by other 
women. Of course reflection in these cases does not go very 
deep nor very far, but it goes far enough to help hold many 
persons steady who would otherwise follow their instinctive 
desires. In time these influences become so nearly subcon- 
scious that most of us do not recognize how large a part they 
really play in our lives. It is the power of the subconscious 
that I am desirous of having you become familiar with. 
Instinct and Intelligence.—There are a number of the- 
ories in regard to the relation of instinct to intelligence. Lloyd 
Morgan thinks instinctive behavior is comparable to a chain of 
reflex actions, due to heredity. Bergson holds that instinct and 
intelligence are two radically different kinds of knowing. Stout 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 238 


says that instinct is inseparable from intelligence. J. Arthur 
Thompson says that no mental state can be spoken of as solely 
instinctive or solely intellectual. He holds that innate knowing 
in instinct is of things, and innate knowing in intelligence is 
of relations. It seems likely in the light of our idea of cellular 
intelligence that Stout and Thompson hold the more nearly 
correct view. 

Instinctive Behavior.—In instinctive behavior the organ- 
ism uses its inborn organization and is able to adjust means to 
ends without exercising choice. The spider spins a web, the 
bee makes honeycomb, the Digger wasp paralyzes insects by 
stinging and then stores them away as food for its young, the 
Moorhen swims gracefully and well the first time. Instinctive 
behavior reaches its climax in ants, bees, and wasps. They are 
rich in instinctive behavior, but are almost non-educable, altho 
they do build up very complex chains of association. 

Intelligent Behavior.—When we reach the higher forms 
of life, such as birds and mammals, we find they are less well 
equipped with ingrained capacities as indicated in instinctive 
behavior, but they are capable of a wide range of education. 
It is here that we may speak confidently of intelligent behavior. 
We see trial and error being used and profited by. Experiment 
begins to have a place in the activities, and with it some degree 
of reflection. It is a manifestation of the reflective and experi- 
mental as over against the reflexive and instinctive. 

Freedom.—As this process of development goes on there 
is a continual increase in the degree of freedom enjoyed. The 
simplest organism is free compared with non-living substance. 
The dog is free compared with the starfish. The man is free 
compared with the dog. Each one is free to a degree, yet 
each is controlled to a degree by the experience of its ances- 
tors and by its own, as indicated in the more or less permanent 

records made in its nervous system. 


236 PRAG DICALARSY COOLOGY 


Primitive man was quite at the mercy of physical forces 
and quite as much at the mercy of the subconscious. Impulse 
and desire rather than reflection directed his activities. He 
imitated the group without knowing that he was simply an 
imitator, and so there developed a set of neuron patterns as — 
a result of muscular action that later upon stimulation con- 
trolled him. It was to all intents and purposes a subconscious 
control. The only reason man could give for his action was 
“just because.”’ The merest suggestion set the neuron patterns 
off and action resulted. Even today members of the race in 
general follow suggestions from others, usually the traditions 
of the past. Many are as much slaves to the ideas of their 
grandfathers as the Negro was a slave to his master. 

Wakefulness.—As we have seen there are some organs 
of the body that are “awake” as long as life lasts. The heart 
is always active and so are the other vital organs of the body. 
Rest, meaning inaction, is unknown to most if not all of the 
organs of the body. So it is with the mind. It is always 
active, taking charge of these bodily activities, altho by far 
the greater part of its activities is quite unknown to us so far 
as actually being able to trace the process of the action while 
it is being performed. Sleep is a state of subconscious activity. 
The mental states of subconsciousness are continuous with 
those of consciousness, but they are not connected with each 
other by any recollection. Subconsciousness is like conscious- 
ness, except that it is outside the field of mental vision. The 
threshold between the two is not always at the same level, so 
to speak. It moves up and down. When one’s energy is low 
the threshold lowers and old habits that have been buried in the 
subconsciousness for years and that we thot were gone for- 
ever reappear and often cause us humiliation. One falls into 
temptation very much more quickly if his vital energy is below 
par than when he is in the “‘pink” of condition. 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 237 


This is a fact often overlooked by those who have charge 
of the training of children. It requires energy to set up new 
habits of thot and action. One needs to be well fed, well ex- 
ercised, mentally and physically, to withstand temptation, or to 
prevent one from backsliding. The backslider is an example 
of one having apparently made up his mind to follow some new 
line of action, tries it for a short time and then surrenders to 
his former master, the subconsciousness. The relation between 
good health and morals and religion is very close and often 
overlooked by those who try to lead men and women to higher 
standards of life. A starving man can be “‘converted’’ to any- 
thing that promises something to eat. 

Subconscious Direction.—The subconsciousness tends to 
go its own way and that way is not always the way we will 
to go. In such cases it continually checks us up by forcing 
rather gently upon consciousness a different thot. Often when 
we are looking for something we have mislaid we find our- 
selves “feeling” as tho we had left it in a certain place and 
yet we “half feel’ that we did not. The “half feeling” is the 
subconsciousness trying to direct us the right way. We find 
the same thing happening over and over again when we are 
trying to recall a name. The conscious mind starts off on a 
sure course and is brought up shortly by discovering that way 
is not right and another closely associated either in time or 
place is found to give the correct approach to the name. We 
think the person’s name begins with H, when in reality H was 
the first letter of the name of the place where we met the man. 
The correct impression was gradually pushed up from the 
subconsciousness. 

Making Use of “Stock-in-Trade.”—It is said by many 
psychologists that one cannot alter his subconsciousness, This 
does not seem to be the true statement of the case. One cer- 
tainly can turn over to the subconscious many new impressions 


238 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


and they will be registered there and become a part of the 
whole. These impressions are not something simply added as 
one adds a handful of sand to a package of sugar. The im- 
pressions are not simply poured in as one pours water into a 
glass, they become assimilated, associated, related to what is 
already in the subconsciousness and having been so assimilated 
the subconsciousness is different than it was before the process 
began. However this may be, one can learn to control and 
make the subconsciousness serve a helpful and useful pur- 
pose. When we recall that it is possible to make all our 
memories, impressions, experiences, in whatever line, con- 
tribute to our daily task.by getting hold of them thru the sub- 
consciousness, when we remember that all of our inheritances, 
dispositions, and tendencies, together with countless neuron 
patterns that have never yet been used for lack of a proper 
stimulus, can be aroused to activity and made to contribute to 
the task in hand we see how little of our real ‘“‘stock-in-trade” 
has been made use of. It is as tho a business man were hard 
pressed for capital while he has money in the bank about which 
he has completely forgotten. This may seem a strange state- 
ment, but a few years ago I became acquainted with a man 
who had had just such an experience, discovering some years 
after his sore need of money that he had $3500 in a neighbor- 
ing city bank all the while and had completely forgotten it. 
Heredity.—Thru heredity we receive our instincts and 
our nervous mechanism and to these we are continually adding 
experiences thru memories, the records of which are indelibly 
stamped upon the neurons of the brain. The subconsciousness 
operates thru the sympathetic nervous system and is most 
closely related to the instinctive elements of our nature. We 
hardly realize how permanently the neuron patterns, which give 
rise to instinctive functioning, must be registered in the brain 
until we recall that during surgical operations ether, chloro- 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 239 


form, and other anesthetics do not prevent the mind from 
carrying on the regular vital operations. 

Lower and Higher Levels.—We often speak of the lower 
and higher levels of the mind but it seems to me that such 
language does not make the matter quite clear. I think we 
shall get a better understanding of the situation if we consider 
the question, not from the viewpoint of lower and higher, 
but from that of permanent and less permanent. If we think 
of the impressions made upon the neurons of the brain as tho 
they were cut in as an engraver cuts with a tool, we shall realize 
that the deeper the markings the more permanent they will 
be and that the nerve energy will flow first and last thru these 
deeper impressions. These deeper patterns correspond to the 
pathways of the energy that result in functions which we re- 
gard as instinctive. Other impressions that are not so deeply 
carved are those that are acquired thru experience and these 
form the basis of habits, every repetition of the act carving the 
pattern a little deeper. Then there are areas where almost no 
tracings are found, those areas where a tracing of the result 
of a single performance of an act is made. This will help us 
to see why it is that the instincts cannot be completely inhibited, 
tho they may be to an extent controlled. 

Complexes.—We saw when we discussed illusions that it 
often happens that a single element is common to several 
neuron patterns. There is a group of neurons more or less 
closely tied together. These group patterns will, when stimu- 
lated, produce associated movements. We have already noted 
that whenever an idea is in consciousness there is generated an 
impellent energy which seeks expression in bodily activity. 
This grouping of associated movements, this binding of sev- 
eral mental elements together is called a complex. The emo- 
tion, the impellent energy released by the idea, is one of the 
most powerful binders known, and yet in spite of its power it 


240 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


often happens that an idea becomes entirely separated from 
the emotions that usually appear with it. As in illusion there 
is a temporary separation of the element from the correct 
group in which it belongs. Here there is a permanent separa- 
tion of the mental element from its attendant group. These 
complexes account for the origin of many functional diseases. 

Mental Diseases.—The last quarter of a century has 
demonstrated the physiological origin of many mental diseases. 
Melancholia, formerly thot to be a mental disease, is now 
known to be often caused by certain bacteria in the colon. 
Certain forms of hysteria are caused in a similar manner. 
These bacteria are the cause of certain emotions. Knowing 
the cause the psychologist tries to foresee the course and in- 
fluence of the emotion. The sensible thing to do is first to see 
that the bacteria that are causing the abnormal functioning 
thru the production of certain toxins be dealt with, then if 
necessary deal with the mental attitude. 

Nervousness.—Nervousness may arise from an enfeebled 
nervous system. It may arise from irritation caused by stimu- 
lants and narcotics, such as tea, coffee, tobacco. It may be 
caused by toxins within the body. Some persons are so stimu- 
lated that they respond to every irritation. They make exag- 
gerated responses to every stimulus. They cannot overlook 
anything. They cannot “let go.” They are “high strung.” 
One who makes such response to stimuli is called a neurotic. 
One may spend so much energy in responding to these external 
stimuli that health is really endangered and one becomes 
neurasthenic. 

“‘Nerves.”—One may have a case of the “nerves” and have 
nothing the matter with his nervous system. He may be 
organically sound and yet suffer all kinds of torment. Disease 
may be caused by either a physical or a mental condition. One 
may have an enfeebled nervous system but a case of the 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 241 


“nerves” is not due to such a cause. It is not due to physical 
but to mental causes. It is due to abnormal functioning of 
some organ or organs of the body and the abnormal function- 
ing is due to wrong thinking. The subconsciousness is doing 
with the organs of the body what by some means it has been 
led to do. There is a vital difference between organic disease 
and its symptoms and functional disorders and their manifes- 
tations. The basis of functional disorders is in the mind. The 
manifestation may be dyspepsia, melancholia, palpitation of the 
heart, or a dozen other things. The cause is mental. The 
organs do not function properly. They have been “fussed 
with” as some green garage man “fussed with” the carburetor 
on your car. The stimulus to wrong thinking may be instinc- 
tive or it may be in a suggestion from some forgotten source, 
both of which may now be a part of the subconsciousness and 
be exerting its power from below the threshold of conscious- 
ness. There is nothing organically wrong with the body. It 
is out of adjustment. The suffering is as real and as painful 
as tho the difficulty were organic. 

Abnormal Dissociations.—It is not unusual for the con- 
nection between a mental element and its attendant group to 
be so completely broken that amnesia, anesthesia, or hysteria 
results. The hysteric often becomes so obsessed with an idea 
of a certain malady, heart disease, kidney, lung trouble, etc., 
that he may even show clinical symptoms so definitely that 
competent physicians are often deceived. There are many 
cases of loss of memory so complete that one is left without 
the faintest notion of who he is or where he lives. 

Loss of Memory.—There is the case of Ansel Bourne, a 
minister of Greene, Rhode Island, who disappeared on January 
17, 1887, after having drawn a considerable sum of money 
from the bank. Foul play was suspected because of the money 


242 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


he had with him when last seen. The police took an active 
interest in the case but no trace of him could be found. 

About two weeks later a man calling himself A. L. Brown 
appeared in Morristown, Pa., rented a small store, stocked it 
with stationery, confectionery, fruit, etc., and proceeded to do 
business. He seemed perfectly straightforward and was not 
in any sense eccentric or peculiar. 

On March 14, 1887, he awoke in fright and did not know 
where he was. He declared his name was Ansel Bourne and 
that he lived in Greene, R. I., that he knew nothing about 
Morristown, nor a man named Brown. The family with whom 
he lived thot him crazy,-and sent for Dr. Louis R. Read, who 
thot the man had lost his mind. The doctor, however, sent a 
telegram to Providence, R. I., and Mr. Andrew Harris, Mr. 
Bourne’s nephew, went to Morristown, identified his uncle, 
and took him home. 

Mr. Bourne was in a weakened condition, having lost 
twenty pounds. He had lost complete memory of everything 
between January 17 and March 14. The last thing he could 
remember previous to waking up was of drawing money from 
the bank and taking a horse-car for Pawtucket, R. I. 

Some three years later Dr. William James, of Harvard, 
who had learned of the case, induced Mr. Bourne to submit to 
hypnotism. Dr. James says: 

“I induced Mr. Bourne to submit to hypnotism, so as to 
see whether in the hypnotic trance his ‘Brown’ memory would 
not come back. It did so with surprising readiness; so much 
so that it seemed quite impossible to make him whilst in the 
hypnotic state remember any of the facts of his normal life. 
He had heard of Ansel Bourne, but ‘didn’t know as he had 
ever met the man.’ When confronted with Mrs. Bourne he 
said that he ‘had never seen the woman before,’ etc. On the 
other hand, he told of his peregrinations during the last fort- 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 243 


night, and gave all sorts of details about the Morristown 
episode. The whole thing was prosaic enough and the Brown 
personality seems to be nothing but a rather shrunken, dejected 
and amnestic extract of Mr. Bourne himself—during the trance 
he looks old, the corners of his mouth are drawn down, his 
voice is slow and weak, and he sits screening his eyes and 
vainly trying to remember what lay before and after the two 
months of the Brown experience. ‘I’m all hedged in,’ he says, 
‘T can’t get out at either end. I don’t know what set me down 
in that Pawtucket horse-car and I don’t know how I ever left 
that store or what became of it.’ ” 

There are other cases of loss of identity that have come 
about thru accident that have caused a complete loss of memory 
and then thru some peculiar experience there is a break with 
the new connections and the old memory is restored and all 
the later happenings are forgotten. There is a case of a young 
man reported from Glenrock, Wyoming. In 1902 he was 
working in Portland, Oregon, being employed on a barge. 
One day he slipped and fell off the barge and struck his head 
upon a log and fell into the water unconscious. He was pulled 
out of the water and taken to the hospital, where he was 
delirious for several days. When he became conscious he 
knew nothing about the fall, nothing about working on a 
barge, nothing about being in Portland, Oregon, but began 
to talk of Glenrock, Wyoming, and of his father and family. 
The physicians communicated with persons in Glenrock and 
the young man’s father went to Portland, and it was discovered 
that in 1898 in Glenrock the father and son were digging a 
ditch and had some words and the father hit the boy on the 
head with a shovel, but without serious injury so far as any- 
one could discover. Later in the day the son left his work 
and walked toward the village and was not seen by the family 
again until the father saw him in Portland in 1902. 


244 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


Dr. Jallin Gilbert became interested in the case and under- 
took to reestablish the proper associations and tie the two parts 
of the young man’s memory together. He hypnotized the 
young man who, while under hypnosis, told of his leaving 
home, enlisting in the Spanish-American war, deserting, tramp- 
ing west to Portland, working on the barge and of the fall in 
which he injured his head. He could remember nothing of his 
life before leaving Glenrock nor of his experience after the 
fall. Dr. Gilbert by questioning and suggestions enabled him 
slowly to recall into activity neuron patterns which had be- 
come so completely dissociated from the other that finally the 
two parts of his life were joined in memory and a complete 
unity established. 

Functional Diseases.—There are two methods at present 
that are applied in dealing with functional disturbances aside 
from the method of the regular physicians. One method aims 
to have the patient forget, stop thinking about his ailments, 
center his attention upon health instead of upon disease. The 
other method is to think about all the dreams, symptoms, and 
imaginations that occur to one and tell them all to the prac- 
titioner and do this day after day, week after week, until the 
practitioner has information enough to base a judgment upon 
and then he will tell the patient what all these dreams, symp- 
toms, imaginations, and symbols mean, and knowing what they 
mean the patient will forget them, if he can. 

Psychotherapy.—The one of these methods is called psy- 
chotherapy and in many cases makes use of hypnotism, or 
hypnosis. There are some misconceptions about hypnosis. It 
has been known for centuries that it is possible for one person 
to have such influence over another that he could induce sleep 
or a condition resembling sleep in the other. Mesmer, who 
was the first to make much use of the method, regarded it as 
a kind of magic and taught that there was a force transmitted 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 248 


from the operator to the patient. To this force he gave the 
name of emanations, a term not new but new in this connec- 
tion. From Mesmer came the term Mesmerism. 

Dr. James M. Braid of England taught that there was not 
a force which passed from the operator to the patient, but 
that the effect was produced entirely by “suggestion.” Dr. 
Braid used the word “hypnosis” instead of ‘“‘mesmerism.”’ 
We all know that ordinarily it requires force or persuasion by 
one person to produce action or belief in another. No one is 
compelled to accept suggestions, but we all do accept them every 
day. Our normal actions are the result of habit or of reflec- 
tion and judgment. When one is hypnotized, he acts without 
reflection, just as he does in habit and instinct. Huis subcon- 
sciousness is directed by the consciousness of another. 

Misconceptions About Hypnosis.—It has been generally 
supposed that in hypnosis the subject loses consciousness, but 
this is seldom the case. Most subjects remain fully conscious. 
It has been generally thot that only weakminded or weak- 
willed persons can be hypnotized, but children, insane, weak- 
minded, and hysterics are the most difficult cases. It has been 
thot that only a comparatively few can be hypnotized, while 
practically everyone can be. Some have thot that the hypno- 
tist must be endowed with some mysterious power, but that 
is not so. Intelligence, determination, confidence, earnestness 
are assets here as they are in anything else. It is extremely 
doubtful that one can be hypnotized unless he gives mental 
assent. One cannot be hypnotized against his will. 

Another mistaken notion in regard to hypnotism is that 
no one but the operator can arouse the subject, when the fact 
is that the subject may be left in the state of hypnosis and no 
one go near him and he will waken as normally as he does 
from a night’s sleep. Sometimes I have had subjects who 

would awaken of their own accord in fifteen minutes while 


246 PRAGTICALUPSYGHOLOGY, 


others would not awaken for two hours, but I have never 
known of a case where the subject did not awaken normally 
even tho not awakened by the operator. 

Of course suggestion can be given as to when a subject will 
awaken and he will awaken at the time indicated, just as he 
may be given post hypnotic suggestion, that is, while hypno- 
tized, let him be told that at a certain time after he awakens 
he will do a certain thing, or when he hears a certain word 
he will perform a certain act, and he will do as suggested at 
the time suggested without knowing why he does it. He feels 
compelled or constrained to do the thing and does it. Usually 
the subject comes to associate the action with suggestion but 
does not have a clear remembrance of when it was given him. 

We often hear it said that hypnotized persons may be 
directed to commit crime and do other immoral acts as a 
result of hypnotic suggestion, but it can be said with truth that 
one’s moral standards cannot be upset by suggestion. If one’s 
ideas of the rights of property is such that he cannot think 
with composure of stealing from another, he cannot be made 
to steal thru hypnotism. But if he has often thot that if he 
were ever hard put to it for funds, he could easily find a way 
to get money and cover up his trail, but has said to himself, 
“Of course, I never will.” Such a person under the influence 
of hypnotic suggestion might pick a pocket, or steal from his 
employer, because the act is in accordance with what he has 
often thot he could do but has refrained from doing because 
of some restraining influence and not because of moral disgust 
at the idea. ‘‘As a man thinks, so is he.” When the conscious 
restraints are removed the real man acts. 

Hypnotism and Sleep.—Hypnotism is a sleeplike state in- 
duced by artificial means. In sleep attention is equally divided 
among all of the sense organs, and so none of the special 
senses functions as effectively as when one is awake. Normal 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 247 


sleep occurs thru not concentrating the attention. Hypnotism 
occurs thru a concentration of the attention. The subject has 
the illusion of sleep without actually being asleep. 

In sleep the muscles are relaxed, the senses are inhibited, 
respiration is slow, all secretions of the body except that of 
the skin are reduced. The temperature falls, and the sensi- 
bility of the nerves is diminished. The circulation slows up, 
and a depressed nervous activity results. Of course we must 
not forget that all stimuli are registered as well in the hyp- 
notic state as in the normal. The difference is that in the 
hypnotic state they are not recognized. The subject is awake 
but all impulses are inhibited except those given by the 
operator. The process is the same as with the sleeping mother 
who hears nothing except the cry of her babe. Its slightest 
cry awakens her to full attention. We “get used” to the 
noises of the city and are entirely oblivious to them, yet the 
stimuli are registered in the neurons of the brain. As we have 
seen, the inhibition of impulses is an essential element in every 
act of attention. Hypnosis indicates an abnormal increase in 
the selective as well as in the inhibitory power of the mind. 
Hypnosis is a state of extreme mental concentration. 

Practical Uses of Psychotherapy.—Functional disorders 
are caused by certain suggestions getting into the subconscious- 
ness and remaining there. False ideas, concepts, and sense- 
impressions may be produced, but, so far as we know, the 
subconsciousness cannot produce organic change. Incidentally 
that does not prove that it cannot produce such change. Psycho- 
therapy can revive memory impressions and can awaken im- 
pressions recorded in the brain which were never in con- 
sciousness, but it cannot do more than that. It cannot create 
new patterns. I can only recall and reenforce what has been 
already registered in the neurons. Any functional disease 
caused by the subconsciousness can be “cured”? by the same 


248 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


power. So far as we know its power is limited to functional 
diseases. There is no authentic case of an organic disease 
that medical science has failed to cure being cured by Christian 
Science, holy relics, or hypnotism. All the cures of Christian 
Science, Loudres, holy relics, miracle cures, are effected by 
natural means which the psychologist understands. The 
Creator has so organized the universe that much of the power 
which formerly men thot resided outside of themselves they 
now discover is within them. 


Our remedies in ourselves do lie 
Which we ascribe to Heaven. 
Hevena in “All’s Well.” 


The psychotherapist does not regenerate; he places one in 
a position to regenerate himself by using the power which the 
Creator has put within him. He makes one conscious of his 
own power. He lets one into the resources of his own sub- 
consciousness, helps him to reestablish normal processes of 
thot and action. 

Thru hypnosis the operator is able, according to the sus- 
ceptibility of the subject to suggestion, to block off pain, — 
create the consciousness of pain, break up dissociations and 
establish associations. There is always a danger when pain 1s | 
inhibited because pain is a danger signal. It is a warning that 
something is wrong and the first thing should be to discover 
the cause. Every effort should be made to determine whether 
the cause is organic or functional. If it is organic, the organ 
should be dealt with. If it is functional, the mind should be 
treated. In the first case the two can be treated together to 
good advantage. In every case it is regarded as important 
that the patient does not worry over the ailment. No physician 
wants a patient to be continually taking account of his symp- 
toms. He does not want the patient counting his pulse or 
taking his temperature. The physician wants the patient to 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 249 


forget those things, and thru even a mild suggestion the 
physician is able to aid greatly the patient. We all know that 
it is harmful for one to be telling continually how badly he 
feels. We know how repetition produces exaggeration in a 
story. It is the same with description of one’s feelings. It 
is a good plan to head off one who is inclined to rehearse his 
aches and ills by telling him at first glance how much better 
he looks. It suggests health to him and that is just what he 
needs. It matters little what the cause of the difficulty is if it 
is not organic. It matters little whether it is some instinctive 
reaction like a sex urge, or the result of some suggestion long 
since forgotten. If the subconscious cause can be inhibited 
and a positive suggestion put in its place the patient is cured. 

It is sometimes claimed that psychotherapy thru hypnotism 
cannot make permanent cures in all cases. That is true of all 
methods. There are always some who are cured, others who 
are improved, and others who seem to make no gain, no matter 
what method or remedy may be applied. What hypnotism does 
is to establish right associations and right methods of thot. 
Then there should follow, as in all methods of dealing with 
the mind, continued, new, or reeducation in order to make 
permanent the results obtained thru suggestion. Suggestion: 
makes clear the possibility, and reeducation makes the pos- 
sibility an actuality. Hypnotism replaces the, “I cannot” with 
the “TI can,” and makes possible a basis for improvement. 

Old habits can be broken up and instincts controlled by 
suggestion while the subject is in the hypnotic state and often 
the result can be accomplished without hypnosis. Habits such 
as cigaret smoking, drinking alcoholic liquor, taking cocaine, 
etc., have been completely broken thru hypnotic suggestion. I 
have treated cigaret smokers and thru one treatment have 
completely broken up the habit so that the patient has never 
smoked again. It is possible for one to form the habit again 


250 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


just as he formed it at first, but the “hankering” for the 
cigaret was gone. The same is true of scores of men who 
have been fighting the liquor habit. Cases of hysteria can in 
most cases be controlled in the same way. There is difference 
between the smoker and the hysteric. The smoker knows he is 
a smoker and he knows what is the matter with him and the 
cause of it. The hysteric does not know what is the matter 
and does not know the cause of it. The subconsciousness often 
plays tricks on the individual. I recall one young lady whose 
form of hysteria was that of being thrown into an illness 
every time her mother invited company. In time everyone in — 
the neighborhood came. to feel sorry for her. It often hap- 
pened that she would be all right until about time for the com- — 
pany to arrive and then she would be taken suddenly ill. The ; 
company of course inquired for the “poor girl” and expressed 
their sympathy for her, often going up to her room and sym- 
pathizing with her, all of which she very much enjoyed, but 
she would not admit that she fell ill just to gain attention. She | 
was entirely unconscious of the fact that she was doing so. 
Her mother was made acquainted with my thots about the 
matter and her interest enlisted. It was suggested that the 
next time she invited company only those who were the warm 
personal friends of the daughter be invited and that they be 
asked upon their honor not to express any sympathy for the 
daughter and not to go to her room to see her. If the daughter 
fell ill, as was expected, and as the daughter expected the 
mother was to tell her that she must remain in her own room 
and not under any circumstances be disturbed, and that none 
of the company should be allowed to see her because she 
always “got so wrought up.” I suspected that when she found 
that her friends were not coming to her room to see her she 

would rapidly get better and come down to see them, and so 
arranged with the mother to coach them all to express surprise 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 251 


at the improved looks of the daughter in case she should 
appear. The situation turned out as we had expected. She 
was taken ill, no one called at her room to see her, and about 
an hour later she appeared among the guests, and was appar- 
ently disappointed at the reception she received. The guests 
carried out their part by commenting upon how well she 
looked. She could not understand how she could look well and 
be so sick. 

Later I told her that I was sure that her subconsciousness 
was playing tricks upon her just as the magician plays tricks 
upon his audience when he takes live rabbits out of a borrowed 
hat, or picks 50-cent pieces off the end of a man’s nose. The 
subconsciousness plays tricks with our feelings as the magician 
does with our eyesight. Don’t we know we are sick? Of 
course we do. Didn’t the magician take a live rabbit out of 
the hat? Of course he did. We saw him do it. 

The young woman was finally induced to submit to hyp- 
nosis and thru the suggestions given was completely “cured” 
of her illness and it has not returned. Several new interests 
have been developed to which thot and effort are given. She 
thinks of something else than being ill. Her consciousness 
is in control, and now she wonders how she ever got into such 
a state of mind as she was in formerly. 

I know a physician who lives on a very restricted diet 
always, and has for years, when he is at home. About once 
a year he comes to New York for a week. While he is here 
he eats anything and everything that his fancy dictates and 
never suffers the least inconvenience. As soon as he gets home 
he has to return to his diet. Unless he sticks to his diet he 
expects to be ill and he is ill. ‘As a man thinks, so is he.” 
What one expects, he is quite apt to get, especially where health 

enters in. 


252 PRAW TIGA ER SY WHOL Ys 


Psychoanalysis.—The other method referred to is called 
psychoanalysis and aims to correct all mental and functional 
disturbances thru an analysis of the dreams of the individual, 
or by means of what is called “free association.” Freud and 
Jung are the originators of the method. They make a good 
deal of dreams. The Freudian holds that there is a motive 
behind the dream that is very significant, and the real disciple 
of Freud holds that the motive has its basis in the sex instinct, 
altho some psychoanalysts no longer teach it. They hold that 
there is the closest relationship between our dream conscious- 
ness and our wide-awake consciousness and that anyone who 
is clever can by the use of symbols get at the real difficulty that 
disturbs the individual. Dreams do not carry their messages 
on their face and only in symbols, the psychoanalyst says, can 
the real meaning be discerned. The analysis of dreams, they 
say, requires an expert, that is, an expert in symbolism. 

Freudians hold that dreams are the result of repressed 
ideas and that these repressions are always trying to get atten- 
tion of the consciousness in order that the desire or wish may 
be realized. Cases of hysteria are taken in hand and by a 
process more or less tedious an analysis of interesting associa- 
tion of concealed facts is arrived at and these are interpreted 
symbolically. “Freud requests the patient to allow herself to 
drift aimlessly in her communication with him, and to speak 
of everything that comes into her mind. She is not to sup- 
press any thot or idea on the ground that an idea heppens to 
be shameful or painful.” The suggestion is enough to arouse 
the imagination of one who has an obsession, or who is neu- 
rasthenic, to exaggerate her dreams. I have heard of many 
cases of mental distress on the part of patients who have been 
subjected to unsuccessful attempts at extracting a confession 
about unfamiliar subjects. Suffering an indignity is an ex- 
perience which is quite inseparable from the mental sex over- 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 253 


hauling of practically every individual who is put thru a 
Freudian examination. The theory is that if these things can 
be dragged out into consciousness and shown up for what 
they are they will be forgotten and the hysteria or obsession 
will disappear. The patient is involuntarily led to believe that 
the cure will follow when a sexual “repression” has been re- 
vealed. The more revolting the incident the more necessary 
it is to be told and the greater his power to cure. 

The dream has no special function so far as Freud or any- 
one else has ever demonstrated. The symbols used are the 
result of the most fanciful imagination, farfetched, and un- 
scientific. Even Freudians themselves are forced to admit 
that the symbolism applied to one case does not necessarily 
throw any light on the dreams of any other individual. There 
is no fixed symbolism. One of the Freudian authors says that 
in certain cases when the practitioner cannot get the response 
he wants, ‘We are at liberty to take the dream into our own 
hands, and see how it can be applied to the patient’s situation.” 

The symbolism of the Freudians is like the Allegorical 
method of biblical interpretation. One can get any meaning 
he wants, and a different one every day. 

Dr. Tannenbaum, famous specialist, and former disciple 
of Freud, says that during his ten years of practise he found 
his patients were cured without the application of Freud’s 
theories. He says, further, ““Many patients have to be analyzed 
before one can test the truth of Freud’s theories. I study my 
cases very carefully and keep accurate records of all they say. 
The study of all this material has taken years and has con- 
vinced me that Freud’s theories about the unconscious and 
repression and the essential bestiality of man’s instinctive self 
is false, that patients are cured more quickly and more effec- 
tively without resorting to the degrading technique of sexual- 

izing all their dreams and all their symptoms.” 


254 PRAGKIT GATES bt Chetty 


And further, “To my way of thinking, an analyst should 
study the patient without any preconceived notions. Medical 
psychology should study the patient irrespective of any theories 
so it can create a sympathetic understanding of the patient and 
so help to meet his problems. The physician must study the 
mind and history of the patient and should not feel that he 
has to interpret the patient’s neurosis on the basis of repression 
and thru the medium of symbols. Therefore, I would say that 
I practise psychognosis or psychotherapeutics, not psycho- 
analysis.”’ 

Freud’s theory of repression holds that all painful matters 
are forgotten, that they are forced out of consciousness into 
the subconscious. That they are so disposed of because they 
are immoral, degrading, and humiliating. But we all know 
that we forget pleasurable things as readily or more readily 
than painful ones. The painful one is hardest to forget. The 
reason we forget is because we think things are no longer use- 
ful to us. Believing so, we dissociate them from the rest of 
our mental equipment. 

Psychologically the method is unsound. It aims to get 
clearly in mind the thing that is to be forgotten, holding that 
when it is clearly understood it will disappear from the mind 
because the patient can no longer deceive himself, 

The way to forget is to stop thinking of what one wishes 
to forget, and the way to stop is to fix the interest and atten- 
tion upon something else, not to keep repeating the old. 

Dreams.—In this connection let us consider briefly what 
dreams are and how they are caused. Day-dreams and night- 
dreams are much alike. The one who day-dreams gives him- 
self up to reverie. When one is in meditation he knows that 
his mental images correspond to concepts and not to present 
sensory percepts. Just the opposite is true of the night- 


SUBCONSCIOUSNESS 255 


dreamer in whose mind the majority of images take on the 
character of hallucination. 

There is very little critical sense in reverie, but none in 
the dream. The attention is deprived of the initiative it has 
when one is awake. In the dream the attention looks on, so 
to speak, as a disinterested bystander. The attention cannot 
call upon any element. It attends only to such material as 
chance causes to rise in dream consciousness. It knows only 
what is present. Whatever is out of dream consciousness 1s 
out of existence. 

The dream is a series of images tied together by associa- 
tion, but the dreamer does not see the ties that bind them into 
a series. As we know, there is an infinite multitude of neuron 
patterns, images, memories, below the level of consciousness. 
As one approaches the condition of sleep, the neuron energy 
which causes consciousness subsides while the subconscious- 
ness continues active. The nerve energy is low like the current 
from a weak storage battery. There is not power enough to 
operate the starter and the lights, but there is enough to reg- 
ister in the galvanometer. The reduced energy runs from one 
pattern into another, all paths are open and there is no power 
to direct. Toxic poison within, cold feet without, may excite 
neurons sufficiently to cause dreams. If one eats welch rare- 
bit he will not dream the same as he will if he drinks “home 
brew.”’ Day-dreams and night-dreams are of the same mate- 
rial. They differ in quantity but not in quality. They both 
depend upon brain patterns. 

Hallucination.—If{ any neuron pattern in the auditory 
area is disturbed, one hears. If the neuron pattern in the sight 
area is disturbed, one sees. The patterns may be disturbed 
by an external stimulus coming in thru one or more of the 
special senses or they may be aroused by internal stimuli. If 
it is internal the result is an hallucination. The increased blood 


256 PRACTICAL PSY CHOLOGY 


pressure in certain parts of the brain due to fever or delirium 
causes one to see and hear many things that no one else hears. 
These cause a turbulent activity in the subconsciousness and if 
it continues insanity results. An example of the hallucination 
of hearing is seen in all probability in the case of Joan of Arc, 
and a case of the hallucination of seeing in the “Angel of 
Mons.” 

Phobias, hysterias, dreams, and many other abnormal 
physiological and mental functions have their basis in the sub- 
consciousness and can be corrected thru suggestion and re- 
education, which means a readjustment. This comes about 
thru gaining a conscious self-control which will be dealt with 
in the next chapter. 


CHAPTER XI 
CONSCIOUS CONTROL 


IDEAS possess innate impellent energy and there is a tend- 
ency for every idea to express itself in bodily activity. Often 
the energy is not all expended at the time of the stimulus and 
so there is left an after effect which may show itself in some 
later subconscious activity. Darwin showed that every mental 
state has a corresponding physical expression. If a person 
assumes one he is quite likely to experience the other. Anger 
may be induced by the closed fist, passivity may be brought 
about by a reclining or an incumbent position. One cannot re- 
main angry and sit ina reclining chair. If an angry person can 
be induced to seat himself his anger will soon pass. 

For years I kept in my office in the high school a chair 
with the back legs about half an inch shorter than the front 
ones. When a parent came in very much upset about some 
alleged mistreatment of her child by one of the teachers, and 
this would happen occasionally, I always made it a point to be 
very busy. I would invite her to have a chair and always gave 
her the one to which I have just referred and asked to be 
excused for a minute. The chair tipped back just a little too 
much to permit one to sit up straight comfortably. The parent 
would lean back and then sit forward, but after a trial or two 
would lean comfortably back in the chair and by the time I 
was thru with my “task” she was perfectly calm and then we 
could talk the case over on its merits, which could not have 
been done when the parent was in the attitude she was in 

257 


258 PRAGTICAL, PSYCHOLOGY 


when she first came into the office. After this short interval 
she would be in a frame of mind which would enable her to 
act thru reflection and not thru impulse, as she would have 
been obliged to when she first came in. 

Forms of Control—Ionic and Atomic.—As we look 
about the universe we discover what seems to be several forms 
or methods of control. We do not know the real cause of 
these controls, but we do know some of the actions and re- 
actions. For instance, in the ionic and atomic world there 1s 
some power which controls the ions and atoms. The ions obey 
some power from which they cannot escape. The atom of 
hydrogen and the atom-of oxygen are controlled by some 
power so that when they are brought in the immediate vicinity 
of each other they combine. They always react in the same 
manner. Whether the power is within the atom or whether 
it is external, whether it is a simple form of life or a purely 
physical force, if there can be such a thing, no one knows, but 
we are quite convinced that under the same conditions the ions 
and atoms always exhibit the same reactions which indicates a 
constant and permanent control, This is true of all the chemi- 
cal elements. They respond to those forces as readily as iron 
filings respond to the influence of a magnet. 

Planets.—When we look at the larger masses in the uni- 
verse, such as planets, satellites, etc., we discover that they are 
moving about in regular orbits and in certain definite relations 
to each other. Some power either internal or external con- 
trols them. The earth, for instance, moves in its orbit about 
the sun and turns on its axis under such a definite control that 
astronomers know its exact position at any time in relation 
to the sun and other planets and can calculate its exact position 
at any past time or future date. This can be done with the 
other planets, comets, etc., as well. Whether this control is 
different from that which controls the ions that make up the 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 259 


atom, or the atoms that make up the molecule we do not know, 
but we know something of the method and the result of the 
action of that power. 

Jacques Loeb made some experiments to determine the 
effect of this same power upon the growth of some of the lower 
forms of life. He made a study of a hydroid, which is quite 
common in the Bay of Naples. He discovered that if a piece 
of the hydroid (antennularia) was cut out and hung up ver- 
tically in the water of the aquarium with the apex upward 
after a few days roots would appear at the lower end and the 
stem lengthen at the upper end. A similar piece was cut 
from another specimen and was hung upside down, that is 
with the root end above, the apex below, and to his surprise 
the root end formed a new stem with branches and the stem 
end formed roots. When similar pieces of the plant were 
placed horizontally or obliquely the branches from the lower 
side developed into roots and those from the upper side 
developed into stems and branches, indicating that this power 
determines the place of the origin of the organs of the plant. 

The same thing proved to be true in a number of other 
forms of plants with which he experimented at Woods Hole. 
The power which holds the planets in their orbits and compels 
the roots of plants to grow downward and the branches to 
esrow upward is what we know as gravitation. 

Plants and Animals.—Plants and animals exercise a 
greater degree of freedom than we find exhibited by the 
planets and satellites and larger freedom than we find in the 
ions and atoms. In most respects plants and animals are con- 
trolled by a power and energy from which they cannot escape. 
We are all familiar with the power of sunlight to make plants 
growing in a dark room turn their leaves and stems toward 
the window. We may turn the plant half way around and 

the leaves turn again toward the light. There is no escape 


260 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


from it. Many of the smaller forms of animal life are also 
controlled by the power of sunlight, as has been demonstrated 
by Jacques Loeb and others. This peculiarity of plants and 
animals by which they react to sunlight is called tropism or 
phototropism, which means that plants and animals are con- 
trolled or directed by the action of sunlight. 

Aphids (plant lice) live upon rose bushes. If the rose 
bush is kept in a dark room with a little light entering thru 
the window shade, and the soil in which the bush is growing 
is allowed to dry out, the aphids change to winged insects, 
leave the rose bush and fly to the window thru which the light 
enters. If these aphids are put into a test tube they will ap- 
proach the end which is toward the source of light. If the tube 
is turned end for end they will move toward the end which 
is then toward the light. These little insects are completely 
controlled by this power. 

Fresh water crustaceans which are not naturally phototropic 
may be made so by adding a little carbonic acid to the water. 
Apparently some chemical action is set up in the crustaceans 
as a result of the water and the carbonic acid mixture which 
makes the animal more sensitive to the sunlight. These insects, 
which move toward the sun, are called heliotropic. Those 
which turn away from the sun, or toward the earth, are called 
geotropic. Certain moths lay their eggs where, when the larvae 
are hatched, it is possible for them to secure food near by. In 
the spring, as soon as the warm days come, they move up the 
limb of the tree to the terminal bud, where they begin to feed. 
After they have once eaten they cease to be heliotropic, turn, 
go down the body of the tree to the ground, and never ascend 
the limb again. Evidently there is some chemical phenomenon 
produced which is due to the process of nutrition. Jacques 
Loeb, in speaking of the Brown-tail moth, says, “These cater- 
pillars hatch in the autumn and pass the winter in their webs. 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 261 


In the spring, and often in the winter when the atmosphere 
is warmed, they come out, influenced by the rise in tempera- 
ture. They then show a very perfect positive phototropism, 
and I have never found under natural conditions any animal 
with a more pronounced heliotropism. But, as soon as they 
have eaten, their positive heliotropism disappears and reap- 
pears no more even when they fast again. It is evident that the 
chemical changes connected with nutrition have acted, directly 
or indirectly, as an inhibition or a definite suppression of the 
photochemical reactions which the insect formerly possessed.” 

The power that controls the atom we call chemical affinity ; 
that which holds the planets in their orbits and controls the 
direction of the growth of plants we call gravitation; that 
which controls plants and the lower forms of animals we call 
tropism. 

According to Bouvier, who has made very extensive studies, 
there develops a dependent periodicity of reaction, actions 
occurring at regular times or seasons. There is also an acquired 
periodicity which gives rise to organic or muscular memory. 
He says, “Organic memory is the result of external stimuli 
like tropisms, and like them also is independent of the differ- 
entiation of tissues and manifests itself by automatic acts. 
But it is distinguished especially by the fact that it can pro- 
voke reactions (motor or otherwise) without the aid of the 
stimuli which originated it. This is its principal character- 
istic, one which marks the first tendency of the organism to 
liberate itself from the environment which surrounds it.” 
This evidently is on the road to psychism. There gradually 
develops a species memory which manifests itself in all the 
representatives of the species. Bouvier points out also that 
there appears in the higher forms of insects, the articulates, 
a psychic power which enables them partially to escape from 

the power of tropism, a power which makes it possible for 


262 PRAGITIOAL PSYCHOLOGY. 


them so to behave that they do not always have to respond in 
the same way to a stimulus. They develop to a point where 
“trial and error’ enters in, where they are able to correct 
their errors by trials. ‘‘Psychism appears in the form of a 
choice between the diverse modalities offered in response to the 
variations of a stimuli.” 

The articulates and the mollusks have a well differentiated 
nervous system and brain represented by a pair of ganglia and 
sense organs which are connected with the brain. It is in these 
animals that there develops a species memory which looks like a 
form of psychism and which gives them a little wider range 
of reason in response to. stimuli than is enjoyed by the still 
lower forms of animals. This vague psychism readily be- 
comes automatic and is somewhat akin to what we call habit 
in the higher forms of life. The individual develops a wider 
range and greater flexibility than that of the species. It is 
possible for one of these insects to remember where its nest 
is, where it left its prey, and remember the way back to its 
nest. And along with these characteristics there appears the 
ability to learn. There is evidently a form of consciousness 
which enables the insect to improve by experience. 

Fabre tells of the Languedoc Sphex, a kind of wasp that 
hunts grasshoppers, which it paralyzes by stinging and which 
it buries in a prepared place with one of the wasp eggs. The 
grasshopper furnishes food for the larva of the wasp. Fabre 
has studied these wasps intimately and says that they exercise 
memory. ‘They change their usual mode of procedure in the 
face of obstacles. Turner’s observations confirm Fabre’s con- 
clusions. Ferton’s studies of the solitary bees of the genus 
Osmia leads to the conclusion that the memory which guides 
these insects belongs to the same degree of psychism as the 
human memory. Ability to learn is an important character- 
istic of the articulates. This ability differs considerably be- 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 263 


tween different individuals of the same species. The species 
memory is supplemented by an individual memory which 
makes for a wider variety of action. 

Certain sensations of these insects may be so intense that 
for the time being they destroy all others, just as is true of 
man who becomes “entirely absorbed.’”’ Many of these im- 
pressions readily become automatic or habitual, but these habits 
may be changed. Associative memory, as referred to by Loeb 
and Bohn, as well as the conclusions of Bethé, indicates that 
wasps, cockroaches, crawfish, and crabs are capable of modi- 
fying their habits and of learning to form new ones. 

In speaking along this line Fabre says, “Pure instinct, if 
it existed alone, would leave the insect unarmed in the per- 
petual conflict of circumstances. ... A guide is necessary. 

This guide the insect possesses to a very evident 
degree. It is the second domain of its psychology. In this 
domain it is conscious and can improve by experience. Not 
daring to call this aptitude rudimentary intelligence, which is 
too advanced a title, I will call it discernment.” Considering 
observations of Fabre, along with observations of George and 
Elizabeth Peckham, we note that the acts of the insects which 
they studied, in which the insects used a very small pebble as 
a tool for pounding the earth into place over its nest until 
the ground was made level, is no longer an instinct. It is a 
reasoning act in which means are adapted to ends. 

Mammals.—When we consider mammals we find a greater 
degree of freedom. They are not as completely controlled by 
gravitation as rocks. A cat can adjust itself even while falling, 
but a rock cannot. Mammals are able to adjust themselves to 
conditions, to choose, to learn by experience, and to determine 
lines of action in a way that we do not find in the lower forms 
of life; however, in certain fields the control is quite fixed. 
The chemistry of digestion and the physics of assimilation are 


264 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


probably the same as similar reactions anywhere. All animal 
life is very definitely controlled by temperature. There are 
instances where certain animals live in valleys which are sur- 
rounded by mountains and where the temperature of the moun- 
tain passes which lead out of the valley is so low that the 
animals never go out of the valley. The temperature forms a 
permanent barrier against migration. 

Man.—Human beings are able to enjoy a much wider 
freedom from control than any of the other mammals. Man 
can adjust himself to gravitation and to temperature in a way 
that none of the other animals is able to do. Man has been 
able to adjust himself to.almost all temperatures of the earth’s 
surface, ranging from the extremely hot climate of the sea 
level regions of the torrid zone to the arctics. Some of the 
mammals have, under the influence of man, been able to 
adjust themselves also and so free themselves to a degree from 
the control of the natural forces, altho there has been sub- 
stituted for them the control of man. The dog is man’s com- 
panion in practically all climates. 

Man has been able to free himself to a degree from these 
external controls by virtue of the fact that he understands 
somewhat of the relation of cause and effect. He can picture 
to himself what will happen as a result of certain causes and 
by virtue of the “idea” which he holds in consciousness he is 
able to exercise a control over himself and over the forces of 
his environment. 

We are on safe ground in saying that as chemical affinity 
controls the atom, gravitation the planets, tropism the plants 
and lower forms of animals, the idea controls the actions 
of man. 

We noted at the beginning of this chapter that ideas possess 
a certain amount of energy, and if the biological chemist is 
correct the idea in consciousness creates a chemical reaction in 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 265 


the body as definite and as sure as that caused by external 
stimuli. Recently I heard a noted psychologist say in a lecture 
that he could select ten persons from the group and tell them 
that after they had left the room he would send to them 
another person who would ask a question of one of the ten 
but that the speaker would not know which one of the ten 
would be asked. After the question had been asked the group 
would return to the room. The psychologist said he could 
then tell which one of the ten had been asked the question. 
This he explained he could determine by the amount of sugar 
in the blood. The reason for it is that everyone of the ten 
had a certain idea in consciousness as the result of the selec- 
tion and with the idea a certain emotion was aroused. This 
emotion sets up a chemical reaction in the body which results 
in increasing the amount of blood sugar. The greatest emo- 
tion, however, was aroused in the mind of the one who was 
chosen to be asked the question and the result was a greater 
increase in the amount of sugar in his blood. 

Conscious Control.—If the scientists are right we see 
that a man is controlled in general by his ideas, and as we have 
all seen within a very wide range the normal person can con- 
trol his ideas. That is, he can determine what ideas shall 
remain in consciousness. 

We all of us know from our own experiences that the 
thing that we have seriously thot of doing we are quite apt 
to sometime later try to do. The normal person has the 
ability to inhibit ideas which he does not want in conscious- 
ness and by inhibiting them prevent them finding expression in 
action, particularly so if he replaces them with other ideas 
which result in action along a different line. The only way 
to secure right conduct is first of all to secure right thinking, 
and right thinking can only be produced by inhibiting those 
elements which have no place in right ideas. What we are 


266 PRACTICAL PSYiGHOLOGY 


to be and to do tomorrow is determined by the ideas that we 
let possess our minds today. 

What will be our status in the future? How far have we 
thought ahead? Do we know, for instance, that statistics 
prove that out of every one hundred average men and women, 
thirty-six die of preventable diseases before they are sixty-five 
years of age, that of the sixty-four who live longer, one will 
be rich, four will be well-to-do, five will be earning their own 
living, and fifty-four will be dependent upon relatives, friends, 
or charity? And do we realize that these fifty-four are the 
ones who were never able to exercise anything like a complete 
self-control? They were always directed or controlled by some 
influence outside of themselves. 

There is need for everyone to understand his past ex- 
periences and his present relationships well enough to forecast 
his future program so that he may not float with the current, 
but if necessary pull against the stream in order to attain the 
goal he has set for himself. Suppose you were asked to think 
about what you expect to be ten years from now, to see the 
entire picture, position, income, family, friends, and then think 
of what seems to be the greatest obstacle in the way of attain- 
ment and then explain how you propose to overcome it. Would | 
you have a definiteness about your plans for the future which 
would indicate success? There should be a singleness of aim. 
It should be definite and along with it a determination to 
secure its attainment. That calls for insight and perseverance. 

In this connection it is well again to raise the question of 
self-mastery which we have raised in an earlier chapter. Self- 
mastery means doing what you want to do when you want to 
do it. Do you do what you intend to do? Do you have the 
power to hold yourself to the task until it is completed? Have 
you allowed yourself to become a slave of habit or are you 
able to set aside any habit you have formed and adjust yourself 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 267 


readily to new conditions in spite of habit? If you are able to 
do this you are in a position to exercise self-control and self- 
mastery. Do other people realize that you are master of your- 
self? Is your word as good as your bond? Have you fixed a 
goal or a route to be followed and set it definitely enough so 
you can say, “This one thing I do;’’ whether it is the acquiring 
of knowledge, the gaining of power, or the acquiring of riches? 

Character is regarded as the most vital element in human 
personality and this has a close relationship to self-control. 
There is a wide difference between character and reputation. 
Reputation is one’s general standing in the community, while 
character is what one really is. In general, conduct is the ex- 
pression of character. Conduct is determined by one’s ideas. 
Therefore, if one’s actions are not satisfactory it is because 
his character is not sound and back of his character are the 
ideas. If you wish to change the conduct of another you must 
do it in one of two ways—either by fear, which will compel 
him to act as you wish, or by putting into his mind different 
ideas. If you can help an individual to arrive at new ideas you 
can thereby influence his character and thereby his conduct. 
If workingmen everywhere had a right idea of property rights 
and if corporation interests everywhere had a right idea of 
human rights, there would be less conflict in the field of 
industry. 

Every normal person knows that his ability to do depends 
very largely upon what he thinks he can do. If one feels 
that he cannot exercise control over himself well enough to | 
hold himself to his task, he will not win. Someone has written 
what has been called ‘The Booster Spirit,’ which runs as 
follows: 


If you think you are beaten, you are; 
If you think you dare not, you don’t. 

If you'd like to win, but you think you can’t, 
It’s almost a cinch you won't. 


268 PRAGTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


If you think you'll lose, you’re lost, 
For out of the world we find 
Success begins with a fellow’s will— 
It’s all in the state of mind. 
If you think you’re outclassed, you are. 
You’ve got to think high to rise. 
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before 
You can ever win a prize. 
Life’s battles don’t always go 
To the stronger or faster man; 
But soon or late the man who wins 
Is the one who thinks he can. 

Health.—No matter how keen one’s mind may be unless 
his body is in good condition he cannot get from it the service 
he ought to get. Health depends upon the growth and repair 
of the body and these processes are dependent upon the blood 
supply. The blood supply and its condition depend upon food, 
air, drink, and exercise. One should sleep with open windows 
because when one is asleep only a small fraction of the amount 
of air can enter the lungs as does when one is awake. One 
should drink two quarts of water daily in order that all the 
waste matter of the body may be removed. One should give 
considerable consideration to the quality, and the amount of 
food. We need nitrogen, carbohydrates, and fats in the proper 
proportion in order to keep the body in repair. We need dairy 
products and green vegetables because they contain the largest 
percentage of vitamins, without which persons develop scurvy, 
rickets, and bad teeth. At the present time there is being sold 
what is known as “filled,” or “oiled” milk. That is, there is 
removed from the milk the butter fat and there is substituted 
for it cocoanut oil. The difference between vegetable oil and 
animal oil is that the vegetable oil contains none of the life- 
giving, life-preserving factors known as vitamins. We need 
some coarse foods, such as cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, car- 
rots, parsnips, etc. They contain a little starch and sugar, some 
vitamins and mineral salts of different kinds. Fish is a watery, 


rather indigestible protein of inferior quality. The richer 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 269 


kinds like salmon, eels, halibut, mackerel, have some food 
values because of the fats. Most of us have too large a per- 
centage of starch in our diet. We eat bread, rice, corn, pota- 
toes, and not enough milk, butter, meat, bacon, fruit, and green 
vegetables. Because of this we are anemic, instead of red 
blooded, as we should be. Those who live largely on starches 
are weak, lazy, and pessimistic. 

Dr. McCullom, of Johns Hopkins University, has con- 
ducted over 4,000 feeding experiments on animals, and he 
found that of animals fed exactly alike except that one was 
given “‘filled’ milk and the other whole milk, the one fed on 
“filled” milk died in a very short time while the other grew and 
thrived on whole milk. Dr. McCullom says, “I guarantee that 
any infant fed on this milk substitute will develop rickets in a 
very few weeks.” Many states have laws prohibiting the 
manufacture and sale of “‘filled” milk. 

The experience of the world war has given us a new con- 
ception of the value of a proper diet. The troops that ate the 
least bread and the most meats, those from New Zealand, 
Australia, Canada, and the United States, made the finest shock 
troops in the war. When Germany began to run out of meat, 
animal fats, milk, and cheese for her troops her doom was 
sealed. She had enough of bread, starch, and vegetable oils 
right up to the Armistice. People of Germany and Austria are 
today, four years after the war, pale, flabby, and bloated and 
their children are dropsical and rickety and dying of tubercu- 
losis at three times the rate before the war. They are dying 
for the want of meat, bacon, butter, and milk. Dr. Woods 
Hutchinson says, “All the silly old prejudice against meat, that 
it heated the blood (whatever that means) and produced uric 
acid to excess, hardened the arteries, inflamed the kidneys, 
caused rheumatism, etc., has now been proved to be pure fairy 

tales, utterly without foundation in scientific fact. 


270 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


“Red meats have nothing whatever to do with causing gout 
and rheumatism because neither of these diseases is due to 
foods or drinks of any sort but solely to what we call local 
infections. Little pockets of pus (matter) full of robber germs 
—mostly streptococci—around the roots of our teeth, in the 
pouches of our tonsils, in the nasal passages and sinuses of our 
foreheads and faces opening into them; . . . Our belief now 
is: ‘No pockets of pus, no rheumatism or gout.’ Food of any 
kind has absolutely nothing to do with the case. 

“On the other hand, the very worst cases on record in all 
medical history of hardening and turning to lime (calcification) 
of the arteries all over the body, and in the kidneys and intes- 
tines particularly, have been found in Trappist and certain 
orders of oriental monks who live almost exclusively upon 
starch and pulse—that is, peas, beans, and lentils and abstain 
from meat entirely.” 

These statements from Dr. Hutchinson are of importance, 
to us in view of the fact that so much attention is now being 
given to blood pressure. The hardening of the arteries is 
somewhat similar to what would happen to a rubber tube if it 
is distended beyond its normal size and held there for consider- 
able time. It loses its elasticity and resiliency, but if the pres- 
sure can be relieved at intervals the tube will last much longer. 
Physical exercise should result in such a change of action as 
will bring a change in the circulation of the blood and in this 
way increase the circulation, and then when the exercise is over 
it will decrease. 

One ought to take such care of himself as will enable him 
to know the general condition of his health at all times. It is 
very much easier to keep well than it is to get well. The great 
service physicians will render in the future will be along the line 
of caring for healthy persons and helping them to remain 
healthy rather than in trying to cure sick ones. The American 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 271 


Health Extension Institute is doing a splendid piece of service 
in teaching men and women the need of an annual physical 
examination. It is worth more than it costs to have a report 
from an expert physician that one is in fine physical condition, 
and it is worth more than it costs to discover that there is a 
tendency toward a weakness in some particular organ or an 
improper functioning of an organ which may be corrected. If 
one keeps himself in fine physical condition thru proper food, 
drink, rest, and recreation, he will have gone a long way toward 
being able to do what he wants to do. 

Scientific Concepts.—Man has slowly been getting away 
from the “trial and error,’ “cut and try’ methods thru his 
desire to achieve. His experiences and investigations have 
disclosed uniformities and laws, the complying with which has 
made it possible to attain ends much more readily and much 
more economically than was possible under the earlier crude, 
haphazard methods. Man has classified these laws as physical, 
biological, sociological, psychological, etc. He has sought 
knowledge in order that he might do more with the materials 
which he finds at hand. 

Science is classified knowledge, whether it deals with his- 
tory, mathematics, biology, sociology, or any other facts of 
experience. Actual experience furnishes a knowledge of the 
facts. It is not the fact itself but the use of fact that deter- 
mines its value. It is not things alone but classes of things in 
which we are interested. In all fields of action we must depend 
upon actual experience for our material. Science deals only 
with facts of human experience. These facts are submitted to 
classification and generalization. 

Generalizations.—Science is never expressed in terms of 
actual things but in general terms about things. Generaliza- 
tions make no reference to physical realities that can be known 

thru the senses. They are always expressed in abstract terms 


27a PRACTICAL PSY CHOLGGN 


like ion, electron, point, line, particle, ether. They always 
express class characteristics of material things rather than the 
things themselves. 

Use of Generalizations—We apply generalization to 
facts of experience in order that we may predict future events. 
Each person employs the elements of his own field. The 
farmer thinks of red clover from the standpoint of his interest 
as a farmer; the botanist from his point of view as a botanist; 
the physicist from his point of view as a physicist. That 1s, 
the farmer thinks of the red clover in terms of food for his 
stock; the botanist thinks of it in terms of family and func- 
tion; the physicist thinks of it in terms of motion and of 
structure. The psychologist deals with the world of experience 
in terms of impulses, emotions, and ideas, so he deals not so 
much with the red clover as with the farmer, the botanist, the 
physicist, and if conscious control is to be developed there must 
be an understanding on the part of the farmer, the botanist, 
the physicist, and the psychologist of the place that ideas 
occupy. 

Search for Unity.—In the last two thousand years or 
more there has been a search for a unity to which all things 
might be related. During the last century three great hypoth- 
eses have been set up and their establishment has gone far 
toward helping us reach that idea of unity. One of these is 
the doctrine of the conservation of energy. The experiments 
of Dr. Mayer of Hamburg, Germany, and of Dr. Joule of 
Manchester, England, opened the way for a general under- 
standing of the field of energy. The studies of the physicist 
and the chemist in regard to heat, light, sound, electricity, and 
of wave forms in general, have resulted in the establishment 
of a relationship between physics and chemistry which was not 
previously known. Physics and chemistry are so related now, 
in fact all the physical sciences are so closely related, that when 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 273 


we learn about any one of them we are learning about all. 
Froebel’s criticism of the education of his day was that subjects 
were taught as subjects, that there was no unity developed. 
One’s knowledge of mathematics was in a sort of watertight 
compartment. His knowledge of physics in another, etc. 
There was no approach to the whole field of knowledge which 
enabled one to see that knowledge acquired in one field might 
throw light upon the knowledge in another. 

The Cell Theory of Life——The experiments of Dr. 
Schwann of Germany and Professor Huxley of England re- 
sulted in establishing the cell theory of life which means that 
all life begins with the single cell; that from the simplest form 
of life to that of the highest, every individual begins with a 
single cell. Before their day man studied botany and became 
acquainted with the fern, the rose, the grasses, studied them in 
regard to function and structure but studied them primarily as 
plants. He studied zoology and learned about the oyster, the 
rabbit, the horse, and became able to trace the life history of 
each, but when the cell theory of life became established one 
realized that when he studied the life of a cell in plants he was 
acquiring light which lighted his way thru the entire field of 
plant and animal life and a unity began to appear in the field of 
biology which had not previously been known. The same thing 
was true in regard to geology and astronomy because by the aid 
of the telescope, the spectroscope, and the microscope man 
became conscious of the fact that in composition and structure 
the earth is a part of the great universe, and then when one 
becomes familiar with the elements which compose the earth 
he is thereby increasing his acquaintance with the entire 
universe. 

Natural Selection of Species.—The studies of Darwin 
and Wallace threw a great flood of light upon the origin and 

development of species. While the views of these men have 


274 PRACTICAL PSY CHOLOGY 


been somewhat modified by the work of men like DeVries, 
Mendel, and others, scientific men of today see a unity in the 
entire range of life from its simplest to its most complex form. 
The psychologist sees in the psychical development a similar 
unity. So much so has this unity made itself apparent today 
that we speak of the physical, the biological, and the psychical, 
and men are now searching for that unity which is beneath, 
thru, and above all. 

Unity in Mind.—The idea of the early psychologist was to 
the effect that the mind of man was tripartite—feelings, intel- 
lect, and will, and these were studied as particular faculties. 
Man was regarded as a’sort of a trinity in unity. A further 
study in psychology has made it evident that man is a unity, 
that his mental life is not divided into parts but that his whole 
being is active in every psychosis, that he cannot exercise his 
will without intellect and feeling, that he cannot feel without 
the exercise of his intellect and will. So if we are to approach 
the subject of conscious control intelligently we must approach 
it in the light of the knowledge which the leaders of thought 
today have, and we must become familiar with the fact that it 
is the idea in the mind of man, rather than his impulses, his 
instincts, or his habits that controls his actions. 

Constitution of the Mind.—We have noted in a previous 
chapter that the mind is much more than consciousness. It is 
built something like a stone wall. Thoughts are the result of 
assorted sense impressions taken from the field of experience. 
These little assorted elements are like small stones which with 
mortar make the solid wall. 

The mind has sometimes been likened to an iceberg, but the 
analogy is not accurate except for the fact that as the iceberg is 
ice clear to the bottom, so consciousness and subconsciousness 
are mind clear thru. 

We have noted that the subconsciousness controls all bodily 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 275 


functions and all vital operations, that the seat of all functional 
disease is in the subconsciousness, that the subconsciousness 
conserves the experiences subject to the call of interest and 
attention. In the last chapter we saw some of the methods 
employed to correct these functional disorders. 

Conscious Controls Subconscious.—Each one may deter- 
mine for himself what ideas shall be called from subconscious- 
ness. He may select each idea and so control his emotions. 
He selects the materal out of which his judgments are formed. 
This being the case it is a question of the selection of the right 
elements, whether it has to do with health, wealth, or happiness. 
The ideas in mind are there because the person has consciously 
or unconsciously made the selection. 

How Consciousness Controls Subconsciousness.—Let 
us refer again to the energy of the living cell and remind our- 
selves that the mind deals with the bodily organs as tho they 
were a part of an external, organic world. It uses the body as 
a machine. The subconsciousness has no contact with the 
external world except thru the stimuli which affects one’s 
nervous system. Many of these stimuli do not arouse con- 
sciousness but are recorded just the same. Even in hypnosis 
the contact of the consciousness with the external world is 
thru the consciousness of the hypnotist and the stimuli which 
he furnishes. The cerebrospinal system is the organ of con- 
sciousness and the sympathetic system is the organ of subcon- 
sciousness so far as it relates to the vital organs of the body. 
The attention is selective, the agent of consciousness. What- 
ever one attends to has a larger place in his consciousness than 
what he does not attend to. The greater the concentration of 
one’s attention upon any one idea the greater power it has over 
the subconscious control of the bodily functions. 

Conscious vs. Natural Selection.—As one expands men- 
tally he gains in conscious control. An enlarging conscious- 


270 PRACTICAL) PSYCHOLOGY 


ness means that one is becoming better acquainted in all lines 
of mental activity. The one who knows physics as a science 
has a larger consciousness than he who does not. That is, the 
one whose range of knowledge is widest has the largest con- 
sciousness. His consciousness enlarges as he expands men- 
tally. The subconsciousness is in control in all the animal 
world. The subconsciousness can be educated below the plane 
of consciousness as we saw in connection with habits. 

There was a time in the early history of the race when the 
inhibition of subconscious powers resulted in danger of death 
to the individual. Reason was too inefficient then to be always 
a safe guide. It was not-safe when one heard a strange sound 
to wait to investigate. The only safe thing to do was to obey 
the impulse to flee, but now man has reached a position where 
he can take time to think. 

Conscious Control Just Appearing in the Race.—Con- 
scious control is really a new experience in man. The race has 
followed impulses so long that to bring about conscious control 
is like the development of a new faculty or quality of the mind. 
It is rather unstable. The greatest obstacle to conscious con- 
trol is rigidity of mind and the only way to develop conscious 
control is to bring about a plasticity of mind. A change of 
point of view is the only way to bring this about. The sub- 
conscious is always an obstacle to adaptability. It is like habit 
in general. It saves time but it hinders adaptation. Among 
civilized people the road to a larger life has led from physical 
to the mental control, from the subconscious to conscious con- 
trol; that is, from control by impulses to control by reason. 

Limiting the Subconscious.—As man has developed his 
instinctive actions have become more and more limited. His 
enlarging consciousness or mental evolution leads him to seek 
continually for a cause for every action, and he not only seeks a 
cause for every action but seeks to acquaint himself with the 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 277 


results of the action. He must secure a conscious control over 
every muscular reaction if he is to make reflection his master. 
He must have a clear conception of any muscular movement 
to be performed. He must inhibit the erroneous preconceived 
ideas which subconsciousness suggests is the manner of the 
performance. He must be able to issue new conscious mental 
commands which will set in mind the right muscular move- 
ments. To most of us the end is the thing sought, but if con- 
scious control is to be secured one must give attention to the 
“means whereby” as well as to the “end.” If one is learning 
to play tennis, golf, or billiards, he must acquaint himself with 
the muscular reactions and make them habitual before he gives 
his attention to the purpose or to the result of these reactions. 
The same thing is true in regard to the teaching of penmanship. 
Most of us, if we can recall when we were taught to write, 
remember that we were more concerned about the thing that 
we were writing than we were about the way we held the pen, 
and yet it was quite essential that the muscular reactions be 
mastered and made habitual in order that right habits might be 
formed. I suppose nine-tenths of us today have so little con- 
scious control of the muscles of our body that we are unable 
to do what we want to do. If we were asked, while standing, 
to throw our shoulders back every one of us would throw the 
head back. It is a common experience in the gymnasium for 
the physical director to find that when he wants to develop 
muscles of the shoulders and chest and instructs the man who is 
to take the exercise not to bend at the hips but to exercise the 
arms that he may develop the muscles of the shoulder, to find 
that after one or two movements of the arm the body begins 
to bend at the hips. The men are not conscious of the mus- 
cular reaction. They are thinking about lifting the pulley 
weight off the floor rather than of the “means whereby” 
muscles are developed. 


278 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


Control Without Hypnotic Trance.—We have noted 
that complete control can be exercised thru the hypnotic trance, 
but it has always seemed to me that one ought not to resort 
to psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, or to hypnotism until he is 
thoroughly satisfied that he cannot secure complete control 
without it. When one understands the peculiarities of the sub- 
consciousness and realizes that the impressions registered there 
have been registered as a result of stimuli of which he may 
have been conscious or unconscious and realizes that his con- 
sciousness can control his subconsciousness, he is in a fair way 
to bring about a proper functioning of every organ of his body 
unless the organ is in some way impaired. 

I have had many persons come to me wanting to be hypno- 
tized for some functional disturbances or for the correction of 
some habit like the cigaret or the liquor habit, and have advised 
them strongly to correct the situation themselves and have in 
scores of cases advised them from time to time as to how they 
can get control of themselves and have seen them secure full 
mastery. This, to my mind, is far better than it is to have one 
feel that he must make a crutch of another which is, in reality, 
what he does when he goes to a physician or a psychologist for 
treatment of functional disorders. On the other hand, I have 
known cases where it seemed quite impossible for the person 
to exercise enough conscious control to bring about the proper 
functioning of the vital organs, or to upset a habit. The prin- 
cipal reason for this is that the subconsciousness seems to have 
lost all confidence in the conscious suggestions made by the 
person. It is a good deal like the new year’s resolutions which 
one makes. On New Year’s Day one decides that he will quit 
smoking, and in all too many cases after a few days he thinks 
he will smoke just once to see how it tastes, and after a few 
days more he smokes again and then is soon back a slave to 
his old habit. As a result of repeated performances of this 


*2 a. 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 279 


kind the subconsciousness has rather lost faith in the conscious 
suggestion. The subconsciousness does not believe what the 
consciousness says. Often in such a case a suggestion in the 
hypnotic trance made by another releases a power and an 
energy in the subject which he himself was unable to release, 
but this situation is rare, much more so than we often think. 

Auto Suggestion.—Psychologists have discovered that 
the best time for one to make suggestions to himself, that is to 
apply auto suggestion, is just before going to sleep when all 
of the senses are rather quiet and the attention is lax. They 
have also discovered that one’s own subconsciousness is in 
reality as amenable to suggestion thru his own consciousness 
as it is to suggestion from another. The prerequisite is an 
earnest, intelligent application of the suggestion given. Auto 
suggestion is in accord with well known mental laws. Some- 
one has said that education is three-fourths encouragement and 
the encouragement is the suggestion that the thing can be done. 
If one has clearly in mind the habit to be broken and desires 
earnestly to break it and just before dropping off to sleep will 
think clearly of the reasons why he wants to break it, the harm 
it is doing, the inconvenience it is causing and the satisfaction 
that will come when he is rid of it and emphasizes to himself 
the fact that he can and will break it, he is on the right road 
to make the correction and the readjustment. 

Thru the subconsciousness one can revive memory impres- 
sions but memory impressions are dependent upon the actual 
brain impressions and upon the association fibers which connect 
these impressions, ,jhence the subconscious can only recall and 
reinforce what has already been registered in the neurons of 
the brain; it cannot create power. 

The Abnormal.—There is a deviation from the normal 
in all of our experiences. We begin life as imitators and thru 
the effort expended in trying to imitate we come to originality. 


280 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


Just how far one may deviate from the normal and not be 
regarded as abnormal is difficult to say. In fact to know 
exactly what the normal is is difficult because it is an arbitrary 
point. But the abnormal is not the result of a different set of 
laws and does not have different avenues for its expressions 
or different sources for its impulses than the normal, but it 
does have a disproportionate share of the mental power and 
expresses a tendency to extreme or irregular functioning. If 
one is familiar enough with himself to understand his own 
peculiarities, he will know when he is beginning to exaggerate 
in various lines of reaction and can then check himself up. If 
he finds that he is inclined to procrastination, then he ought to 
face that and recognize the fact that he is inclined to delay, to 
put mental spurs to himself and move more quickly. If he 
finds that there is a tendency for him to act hastily without 
securing all the facts, again he must apply conscious reasoned 
control and make himself wait until he has secured all the facts 
that have a bearing on the matter in hand. 

The Psychological Moment.—There comes a time in 
every situation when one feels that he has ail the facts, that 
he understands the necessary relations, he sees the problem, his 
idea is clear, his emotions are aroused, and the impellent energy 
is ready to be released. That is the psychological moment. If 
action is then deferred hope and ambition drop and one feels 
that it is too late. I suppose it was such a thing as that that 
Shakespeare had in mind when he said, 


There is a tide in the affairs of men 
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their lives 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
Jutius Czsar, Act 4, Scene 3. 


Variation in Control.—There is almost as wide variation 
in control among men as there is among the lower animals. 
One’s control depends largely upon the degree of intelligence 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 281 


he possesses. A child, an imbecile, a moron, a normal person 
all exhibit different degrees of self-control. Ordinarily the 
more intelligent one is the more control he has over his body. 
Somehow a coordination between mind and muscles is brought 
about which does not seem to be possible at lower levels. To 
secure conscious control so that one may always exhibit a splen- 
did repose, never get rattled, always be sure of himself, he must 
acquire a knowledge of himself and of his environment which 
can be secured only thru effort. Alexander gives the following 
suggestion as a means toward securing conscious control: 1— 
A clear conception of the movement required. 2—TInhibit all 
wrong ideas which subconsciousness suggests. 3—Issue new 
and conscious mental orders which will set the proper muscular 
mechanism in action. 4—The movement of the muscles which 
carry out the mental orders. 5—Make this a principle of life. 

Loss of Control.—lIt not infrequently happens that men 
who have gained conscious control allow themselves to develop 
habits which tend to break up that control. This may be illus- 
trated in the case of Cyril Walker, the Englewood professional 
golfer, as reported by Grantland Rice. Walker formerly 
played at a speed somewhat faster than the average player. 
Then in Walker’s own words, “I began to take a little more 
care with my game. I began first by picking up any stray 
sticks or leaves around the ball from the fairway, then I began 
taking another waggle or so in addressing the ball to be sure 
that I was all set in the right way. Finally the habit began to 
grow on me. This last winter I got so I was trying to find 
imaginary objects around the ball. It might be lying perfectly 
but thru force of habit I would stoop over to look for some- 
thing to pick up, the smallest sort of objects that could never 
affect my swing. In the same way I began to use more and 
more time addressing the ball until there were days when I 


282 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


could not seem to hit the ball until I had addressed the ball ten 
or twelve times. 

“I had undoubtedly hypnotized myself. I wanted to play 
faster but I couldn’t. I had worked myself into a habit that I 
could not stop in the middle of a tournament season, but that 
is now allover. From this time on I am going to be one of the 
fastest golfers in the game in place of being one of the slowest. 
I am not going to play in another tournament until I am sure 
I have broken the old spell, until I am sure I can step up and 
hit the ball.” 

This is due, says Mr. Rice, to the fact that the mental side 
of golf is even more important than the physical. By mental 
side he explains, “We do not mean the possession of brains. 
We mean rather the matter of mental control, where it is really 
possible that a thin mentality may work better than a broader 
one. No physical strength is required for a chip shot or a 
three foot putt, yet only think of the number who muddle up 
these efforts by suddenly lifting the head on the down stroke. 

“Once the head-lifting habit is developed, it can tear the 
soul out of any round. It is not so much that one gets physi- 
cally stale as it is that one gets mentally stale. This means the 
complete loss of mental control and the ruination of one’s 
play.” 

It tends not only to ruin one’s play but it is exhausting in 
the extreme. Mr. Walker reported later that he was doing 
surprisingly well on his test of faster playing but furthermore 
he says, “Before I was almost completely exhausted after 
eighteen holes. Now I am getting some fun out of the game 
and I am sure I will be able to play much steadier golf. I-can 
see now why it is that George Duncan and Abe Mitchell can 
look so fresh after thirty-six holes, day after day. They merely 
step up and hit the ball.” 

We find a splendid example of mental and physical self- 


CONSCIOUS CONTROL 283 


control in Charles Albert Bender, one of the fastest Indian 
athletes the country knows. A Chippewa, born at Brainard, 
Minnesota, in 1883, later the pitching hero of the world series 
with the Philadelphia Athletics. Bender joined the Athletics 
in the spring of 1913, after playing a short time on the baseball 
teams of Carlyle Indian School and Dickinson College. He 
set his best mark of victories by leading the American League 
pitchers with a record of twenty-three games won and five lost. 
He has been a potent factor in winning three pennants and 
two world series for the Athletics, and he has always shown his 
best work in these crucial games. 

Bender is also one of the most proficient trap shots in the 
country and is just as good a field shot as he is a trap, both 
with shotgun and rifle. He is an expert billiard player, an 
excellent swimmer, and has achieved prominence in any sport 
that he ever tackled. 

Aside from his physical ability he has a coolness under fire 
that amounts almost to carelessness, a quiet, unerring eye, a 
cool, calm judgment under the most trying conditions, and 
apparently an absolute lack of nervous system and a control 
that refuses to be shaken in the most crucial situation. More 
than once in a crucial series on which everything depended on 
the result of one game, no pitcher known to baseball has proven 
more effective as a batter than Bender. He seems to be able to 
do what he wants to do when he wants to do it. 

I think we may rest assured that one can learn to do and 
to be practically what he desires to be. It is a question of mas- 
tering the details, paying the price. When this is done the 
reward is sure. 


Char Te RATT 
TEMPERAMENTS, VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 


IT is common knowledge that we judge people by appear- 
ances, which means that we judge them according to physique. 
We do not expect to find the man of large physique as quick 
and responsive as the one who is of finer, smaller frame. 
Judging by appearances is an old custom. ‘The phrenologists 
thot they found an explanation for the various mental reactions 
in the shape of the head and the physiognomists in the appear- 
ance of the face. There is just enough truth in the matter of 
the relation of physique to character to deceive many people and 
yet there is a close enough relationship to warrant our giving 
some thot to it. 

Temperament has to do with the original nature of the 
individual, and it comes to expression in the sensibilities and 
emotions, for these are the avenues thru which psychic expres- 
sions are manifested. Temperament does underlie and set 
limits to development and character. We may get a clue to 
one’s temperament, not only by observing his physique but by 
discovering the incentives that lead to action and by a consid- 
eration of the vigor and quality of the action. 

There is in all men the sensitive or the receptive factor. 
One person is very much more sensitive to stimulus than 
another. He is more receptive. One person is more active 
than another, expression is a more important factor than in 
another. We may note this as we think over our contacts with 


men. When a criticism is made of the actions of several per- 
284 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 285 


sons, one takes the criticism calmly and quietly while another 
one storms, gets angry, and gives violent expression to his 
feelings. 

Achievement and Endowment.—It was thot formerly 
that one could understand the natural endowments of men by 
knowing their achievements, but accomplishment is an uncer- 
tain clue to ability and to natural endowment. One cannot 
always discover a person’s ability by knowing what he has 
done. No one knows just what he himself can do. All he 
does know is what he has done, and one’s best may not yet 
have been called into activity. 

Temperaments have usually been classified under four 
heads, which are usually given as follows: Sanguine; melan- 
cholic; choleric; phlegmatic. Each temperament has certain 
general outstanding characteristics. 

The Sanguine.—The sanguine temperament is usually 
indicated by a moderate plumpness of the parts of the body, 
rather firm muscles, light hair, strong pulse, good circulation, 
and may be called “red blooded.” It corresponds quite closely 
to what Jastrow calls the sensitive ACTIVE, which indicates 
that a slight incentive leads to prominent action. The mental 
characteristics of the sanguine temperament indicate that there 
is little time spent in reflection or in weighing conditions. 
There is small emphasis upon feeling and a good deal upon 
action. The sanguine temperament is not over-accurate or 
over-intelligent. There are not many great men of this type. 
There is a lack of sound judgment. They are not very con- 
structive. They flare up like a pine fire which is very hot but 
does not last long. They are cheerful, ardent, hopeful, and 
confident. They are said to be the ready, practical, executive 
type. 

The Melancholic.—The melancholic temperament is in- 
dicated by medium stature, rather bony and muscular, rather 


286 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


dark skin, eyes, and hair. This temperament was formerly 
referred to as “black biled.” It requires a good deal of incen- 
tive to secure action. 

The mental characteristics indicate that one of this class is 
apprehensive, that is, looking forward for things to happen, is 
pensive, calm, light spirited, a bit superstitious, sentimental, 
somewhat subjective, is slow to anger. He is like the anthra- 
cite fire. It requires considerable time to kindle, but it is hot 
and lasts long when it gets to burning. A melancholic tempera- 
ment indicates a person of intense feeling. He is deliberative, 
has great development of intellect, often swayed by fear of 
consequences, apt to be astrifle hesitant, and loves action. 

The Choleric.—The physical characteristics of the choleric 
_temperament are the broad shoulders and the narrow waist, 
bone and muscle predominating. Persons of this type are 
usually found to be aggressive, courageous, energetic, but do 
not have sustained responsiveness. They are impulsive. Any 
obstacle arouses violent opposition. They are quick tempered, 
fiery, irascible, impatient, swayed by anger, and lack persistence. 

The Phlegmatic.—The phlegmatic temperament is some- 
times referred to as the “lymphatic.’’ The physical character- 
istics of this temperament are indicated in the fulness of the 
body, a tendency to corpulency. The hands and feet are large, 
the features are full and heavy, the flesh is soft and flabby. 
Persons of this temperament are calm, cool, pleasant, good 
natured, stoical, serene, easy-going. They have good common 
sense, good judgment, not much originality, not much imagina- 
tion. They have good self-control, are good-natured, placid, 
and sympathetic. They are even-tempered, “angerless.”” There 
is indicated a feeble susceptibility to impression and a weak 
expression. They go along in the even tenor of their way. 

Variations.—There are all degrees of variations between 
any two of these classes and the characteristics indicated may 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 287 


be considerably mixed in one person, so much so that it is next 
to impossible, if not completely impossible, to know the char- 
acter of an individual by his appearance. 

Character by Observation.—Conduct, which is the ex- 
pression of character, is action produced by impulse, incentive, 
and motive. It may be due to inertia of the nervous mechanism 
or it may be due to sensibility, to stimulus, or it may be due 
to the opposite and no one can tell by observation. Observa- 
tion may possibly indicate the characteristics of an individual, 
but it cannot indicate character because it does not take into 
consideration the education and the experience of the individ- 
ual. The phrenologists and physiognomists attempt to read 
character and to determine vocational capabilities of men and 
women by the observational method, but so far as I know no 
one who practises reading of character sticks to observation 
alone. Phrenology and physiognomy are pseudo-sciences and 
bear about the same relation to psychology that alchemy bears 
to chemistry. Of course phrenology and physiognomy are 
both in ill repute among scientific men today and so the terms 
are almost never used, even by those who practise the art of 
character analysis by observation. 

Shape of Head and Face.—We made reference in an 
earlier chapter to the fact that one’s ability and capability can- 
not be determined by the size of his head. Neither can it be 
determined by the shape of his face. Of course within wide 
limits one can judge fairly well. The man of ordinary intelli- 
gence can tell an imbecile from a man of unusual intellectual 
ability often by looking at them. He certainly can if he has 
opportunity to observe them for a time. But where the person 
who undertakes character reading by observation fails is when 
he undertakes to determine how much a candidate knows. He 
cannot tell whether one knows the multiplication table or 
whether he knows all the mathematics of the expert engineer, 


288 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


He cannot tell by observation whether the man knows one 
language or ten. He cannot tell by observation whether one is 
a thief or a murderer. He would not be allowed by any busi- 
ness concern to select an employee for an important executive 
position simply upon what he could observe of the individual 
who is applying. At best, in spite of all that is said to the con- 
trary, the most that can be done is to note a few characteristics, 
but characteristics are not character. One may have the char- 
acteristics of a miser and yet have been under an influence from 
early childhood which has developed a spirit of benevolence. 
One may have the physical characteristics of pugnacity and yet 
under years of training*have brought the spirit of pugnacity 
under control and have developed a fairly agreeable personality. 

A few months ago in New York City a prominent psy- 
chologist sat in the audience while one of these vocational 
analysts by observational methods was reading the character of 
a number of persons who were called from the audience. 
Later in the evening an opportunity was given for questions. 
This psychologist, who was unknown to the “vocational ana- 
lyst’”’ asked if the vocational analyst would stake his reputation 
on the result of an attempt to select the imbeciles and the 
normal minded boys and girls of high school age if the said 
psychologist would bring a dozen, six of whom would be im- 
beciles and six be normal persons. The retort of the expert 
analyst was simply to abuse the psychologist who had asked the 
question. Vocational character analysts by observational 
methods have never yet been willing to submit to any such 
exhibition of their powers as was indicated by the psychologist 
in that audience. 

A few years ago Professor Rudolph Pintner of the Depart- 
ment of Psychology in the Ohio State University made some 
experiments to determine how accurately persons may be sized 
up by their looks. He selected five classes of observers, The 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 289 


first class was composed of nine physicians, two of whom were 
general practitioners and five were specialists. A physician has 
an unusual opportunity to gain experience in reading people 
by observation. The second group was composed of fifteen 
psychologists, fourteen of whom were experts in giving mental 
tests, seven had had experience in abnormal psychology. The 
third group consisted of eleven students who were studying 
feeble minded and carrying on a course in mental measure- 
ments. The fourth group consisted of seventeen teachers who 
were taking a summer course in mental measurements. The 
fifth group was composed of eleven persons who might well 
be classified as miscellaneous. Three of them were business 
men, One was a married woman, and seven were stenographers. 
All of these sixty-three persons were fairly well equipped to 
size up persons by observational methods. 

Professor Pintner and this group of sixty-three persons 
approved an intelligence test which they agreed would indicate 
satisfactorily the intellectual standard and ability of the persons 
examined. Then these tests were given to twelve persons who 
were called in. Then these sixty-three observers looked over 
the twelve and each of the sixty-three rated these twelve in 
order of intelligence. Some of the interesting things about the 
ratings were that the one who stood highest in the standard 
test was ranked fourth by the observational method, that the 
one who stood next to highest in the standard test was ranked 
ninth by the observational method, that the one who was ranked 
as the most intelligent by the observational method proved to 
be number three when ranked by the standard test. The one 
who was ranked as next to the most intelligent one of the 
group proved to be next to the lowest by the standard test. 
The one ranked in second place by the observational method 
was a girl who was an inmate of an imbecile asylum. 

What one can do depends upon what he knows and no one 


290 PRACTICALEYPSYCHOLOGY 


can tell what another knows simply by looking at him. He 
has to resort to other means. It is all very well to say that 
color, form, size, structure, texture, etc., is at the basis of 
character development, but to select men and women for a 
vocation one must take into consideration the education and 
the experience. 

The observational method has not succeeded satisfactorily 
except occasionally. It is rather difficult to check up the results 
of the observational method because in most cases the advice 
given by the analyst is in very general terms, and then one 
needs to go out and apply that advice for a series of years 
before he knows whether or not he can succeed by following it. 

Vocational advice, to be of any real service, should be such 
as will enable one to know his own ability. We are all familiar 
with the fact that exepriences of life do show to a degree in 
the expressions of the faces, but by observational methods one 
can never tell whether a worried look is caused by business, 
religious, or domestic difficulties. Then, too, there are no 
deeply marked lines written in the faces of boys and girls. 
They have not gone thru the experiences of life and so their 
faces do not tell very much. And yet that is the time when 
vocational advice, to be of any real value, should be given. 

Forms of Tests.—There have been several forms of tests 
worked out in order to determine what one can do. Holling- 
worth names several of these. One is the Vocational Minia- 
ture. This is a plan in which from the entire piece of work to 
be done some selected and important part of it is reproduced 
on a smaller scale by using toy apparatus or in some way dupli- 
cating the actual situation which the worker faces when at his 
task. The second is having an actual piece of work done and 
judging the candidate’s ability by his success in this trial. 
Stenographers, bookkeepers, and others can be tested in this 
way. The third method that has been tried is that of analogy. 


—— 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 291 


Some test is devised which bears some real or supposed resem- 
blance to the situation which the worker will find in the given 
occupational activity. Tests have been applied to girls who 
are to sort steel ball-bearings by testing their speed of reaction 
to asound stimulus. The fourth test is known as the substitu- 
tion test, in which certain characters are always to be replaced 
by certain others according to a prescribed key. The speed 
of improvement is chosen as the thing of interest in respect to 
the test. One’s ability to improve gives an indication of his 
aptitude for the task. The test records and ability in a par- 
ticular type of work do correspond very closely with the ability 
of the individual to carry on the proposed type of work. 
Another, and the one which is quite usually employed, is the 
ability in doing the actual work under the normal conditions 
which prevail. This has been followed perhaps longer than 
any of the other schemes. If the one given a trial succeeds, he 
is continued in the position, if he does not succeed he is replaced 
by another. Another method of testing individuals has been 
to make a study of the records which they have made as stu- 
dents in school and compare these records with their success in 
later work. Thorndyke has done considerable work along this 
line and seems to have arrived at the conclusion that one’s 
school records give a fair indication of his ability to succeed 
in the thing he likes. That is, a person’s interests are an 
accurate index of his relative capabilities. 

Most of these vocational tests have as an object the selec- 
tion of a person who can do satisfactorily a piece of work 
required. If the person succeeds in doing that work satisfac- 
torily the situation, in the eyes of the employer, seems to have 
been met; but there is another phase of the whole problem of 
vocational guidance which has not received as much considera- 
tion as it should, and that is the interest of the individual who 
is being tested. The foregoing tests make very little headway 


292 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


in shewing what one can do. They succeed better in showing 
that he can or cannot do a particular thing. 

Vocational tests properly applied will help the individual 
discover his abilities and capabilities so that he may find the 
field in which he has fair prospects of success rather than to be 
shown that he cannot succeed at this particular line. For 
someone to prove to an individual that he cannot succeed as a 
stenographer does not meet his most important problem which 
is to find out in what line he does have some chance of 
succeeding. 

Psychological Tests.—Psychological tests worked out 
under the direction of the government and known as the Army 
Intelligence Tests, which are an application of the Binet-Simon- 
Stanford Revised Tests, have made greater headway in this 
respect than has been made before. As we all know, the gov- 
ernment realized the necessity of recruiting and organizing its 
army and navy forces in such a way that men of special ability 
could be so placed that their ability could be used to advantage; 
and in order to devise a method of discovering this a number 
of leading psychologists (but not a phrenologist or a physiog- 
nomist) of the country were invited in and plans were made 
for examining men in such a way as to test their general 
intelligence. 

Not All Free and Equal.—lIt has been known for cen- 
turies that all human beings are not created free and equal. 
Teachers have always known that there are some pupils who 
cannot grasp material which others comprehend readily. 
About twenty years ago the minister of public instruction in 
Paris named a commission which was charged with the study 
of measurements to be taken, showing the benefits of instruc- 
tion for defective children; that is, those children who were 
apparently not quite normal. One member of that commission 
worked out an extremely useful guide in a series of tests, His 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 293 


name is Alfred Binet and the scheme he worked out is known 
as the Binet Test. This test served as a basis for the Binet- 
Simon-Stanford Revised Tests, the purpose of which is to 
determine not the knowledge which one possesses but the intel- 
lectual level at which he stands. 

Knowledge and Intelligence.—There has always been, 
and still is, considerable confusion in regard to knowledge and 
intelligence. They are not the same. Intelligence is the native 
ability which one has and knowledge is what is acquired. For 
instance, there are some persons who can never be taught the 
method of extracting cube root, even the routine process. 
There are others who not only comprehend the routine process 
but understand the fundamental principles underlying the 
extracting of cube root. Also there are many persons who can 
use a tabie of logarithms in computation who would never be 
able to develop the underlying principles and derive a table of 
logarithms. ‘The one case, that of learning to apply, indicates 
knowledge; the ability to comprehend underlying principles 
indicates intelligence. In all likelihood, Abraham Lincoln 
never understood and never knew how to extract the cube root. 
His knowledge in that particular line was limited, but no one 
doubts that he had the ability to have grasped readily the fun- 
damental principles underlying cube root had they been called 
to his attention. 

Innate Potentialities.—Every individual is born with cer- 
tain mental potentialities. These unfold from birth until the 
upper limit is reached. No one knows what that limit will be, 
but if we find a child remaining at the same intellectual level 
for a period of two years or so, we may feel sure that he will 
never pass much beyond that level. These potentialities serve 
to indicate what one can do with what he knows. The limit of 
one’s ability to do shows itself in emergencies. One upon a 
low intellectual level and one upon a high intellectual level may 


294 PRAGTICAL, PSYCHOLOGY 


be taught to do the same thing or carry out the same process. 
So long as no difficulty arises both succeed fairly well, but if 
an emergency arises the one of the low intellectual level is 
helpless or does the wrong thing as often as he does the right 
thing, while the one of a higher intellectual level comprehends 
the underlying principles of the process and is able to do the 
right thing at the right time. 

A person may have a good deal of knowledge and have a 
rather low degree of intelligence. It is possible for one to 
memorize a great many facts without a high degree of intelli- 
gence, but he must have intelligence to associate those facts 
properly and use them to any advantage. One on a low intel- 
lectual level cannot make much use of knowledge. He may 
know many things but he cannot do anything with them. 

Army Tests.—The Army Intelligence Tests were applied 
to more than 1,735,000 men. These men were selected from 
all stations in life and so represent a vertical section of Ameri- 
can intelligence. These tests aimed to rate men according to 
their intellectual level, and the rating of these men served as a 
fairly accurate index of their ability to learn, to think accu- 
rately under pressure, to analyze situations, to maintain a state 
of mental alertness, and to comprehend and follow instructions. 

Eighty-two percent of the officers in the American army 
were taken from classes “A”’ and “‘B” of this test. The lowest 
IO percent of our army was kept at home, and there is no 
doubt that the effectiveness of our army in Europe was due 
to the grading of the men. 

The Binet-Simon-Stanford scale rates persons according to 
intellectual level by years instead of by age. The classification 
and meaning is given in the table on opposite page. 

From this table you will note that those who stand in 
class ““‘D’’— seldom go beyond the third or fourth grade in 
school. They do not have the mental ability to master work 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 295 


INTELLIGENCE TESTS AND WHAT THEY SHOW 








Stanford 


Tests 


re | | ef 


35-44 
45-59 


60-74 


75-89 


QO-114 


115-134 
135-159 


160-212 


Mental Grade in Points 
Age in |Army In- in Arm 
Yo telligence y 
ars Taste Grades 
Below io] D— 0-14 
10 D 15-24 
11 
Ca 25-44 
I2 
13 
C 45-74 
14 
15 Ct 757104 
16 
B 105-134 
i7 
18 
A 135-212 


19 


eae a, 


of Men |lion in U. S.J/Interpretation of Grades 


Esti- Estimated % 
mated %| of Popula- 
in Each in Each 

Grade Grade 

10% tr millions | 

15% 116% millions 

20% 22 millions 

25% |27%4 millions 
164%4% | 181 millions 

9% 914 millions 

41%4% 4% millions 


| 
: 
| 
| 


These seldom go _ be- 


yond 3rd or 4th grade 
in school. Most me- 
nial work. 
Inferior mentally, fit 
only for regular serv- 
ice under close super- 
vision, Seldom go 
beyond sth and 6th 
grade in public school. 
Low intelligence. Can- 
not make simple writ- 
ten reports. Fit for 
routine work in army 
and in civil life. Sel- 
dom go beyond 7th 
and 8th grades in 
public school, 
Rarely finish high 
school. Fitted for 
rank of private.) in 
army and_ simpler 
skilled work in civil 
ife. 
Make average high 
school record. Fur- 
nish) Ne sO ey i 
army. Skilled work- 
ers and foremen in 
non-technical indus- 
tries in civil life. 
Superior men. Equal 
the average record in 
college and _ technical 
schools, Furnish C. 
O.’s of army and fore- 
men and_  superinten- 
dents of departments 
in the more technical 
and skilled industries. 
Very superior, the best 
college, technical, and 
professional tLVE DACs, 
Furnish high rank of- 
ficers in the army, the 
great executives of in- 
dustry, banking, rail- 
roading, college presi- 
dents and professors, 
statesmen and admin- 
istrators. 





beyond those grades, therefore they lose interest and drop out. 
You will note that those in class “‘C’’ rarely finish high school, 
that they are fitted for the rank of private in the army and for 


296 PRACTICAL OP. CRLCOL GiGi: 


the simpler skilled work in civil life. They make up the large 
group in our population, whether on farms, industries, or 
trades, whose work has to be supervised. Class “A” is made 
up of the very superior, the best intellectual type, those who 
make large plans and direct the executing of those plans, who 
plan and operate railroads, organize and administer colleges, 
furnish the best type of statesmen and administrators. It is 
interesting to note also from the above table, taking our popu- 
lation as about 100,000,000, that 83,720,000 of our people are 
below the intellectual level of 1514 years and that only 16,280,- 
ooo of our people are in the two upper classes. 

Alpha and Beta.—The Army Intelligence Tests provided 
two types of test—the Alpha and the Beta. The Alpha tests 
were a series of written ones in which the total number of 
points were 212, as is seen in the above table. These tests 
were carried out by following instructions given by the ex- 
aminer. The Beta tests were those used for persons who could 
not read the English language. These tests provide for the 
doing of things according to direction. The army report indi- 
cates that it has been thoroughly demonstrated that the intelli- 
gence ratings proved very helpful in indicating a man’s 
probable value in the service. For instance, in a unit about to 
go over seas a number of men would be designated by the 
commanding officers as unfit for overseas service, then these 
men were referred for psychological examination with the 
result that 90 percent of those so referred proved to be of 
the intellectual level of ten years or lower and were kept at 
home. 

There seems to be no reason why some modified form of 
the Army Intelligence Test cannot be applied to all persons in 
order to determine their intellectual level, and when that level is 
determined, change the method of instruction of such persons 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 297 


who are of school age and give them the widest knowledge 
possible that comes within their comprehension. For instance, 
if a boy is found to be at the intellectual level of twelve years 
he should be taught routine work and processes which are at 
that level, rather than to try to drag him on thru high school 
thru courses of instruction, the fundamental principles of 
which are beyond his comprehension, 

Occupations and Professions.—This whole plan entails 
another great task, that is of discovering just what intellectual 
ability is required to master various positions in our various 
industrial and social life. There must be carried on a study 
of all the activities of our modern life so that there may be 
known the qualifications required for success. For example, 
it is quite likely that the president of a great university might 
make a first class ditch-digger, perhaps could learn to dig 
ditches as well as a “C plus” man, but it certainly would not 
be economy to keep him digging ditches. It is not enough to 
find out what one can do well, but to discover his abilities and 
enable him to find a position which shall call for all of his 
Builityeml tone Of sciass @ isi put atid) class) Bi task, itis 
beyond his ability to perform with ease and satisfaction and he 
will become irritable and a disturbing influence in industry. If 
a class “B’” man is put at a class “C’’ task only a part of his 
ability is required. He has a mental leisure which makes him 
uneasy. He cannot put all of his efforts into the task and 
he becomes a disturbing element in industry. We examine 
doctors, lawyers, accountants, pharmacists, etc., why not 
everyone? 

Let us think for a moment what the psychology of the 
situation means. Think of the average normal boy from ten 
to fifteen and a half years of age and then recall that 85 1/5 
percent in industry fall intellectually into that group and then 
remember that the gang instinct which exists among boys from 


298 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


twelve to fourteen years of age is one that binds them together 
in the closest relationship and then realize that the great body 
of workers in industry in America are largely men of foreign 
races who have come to America as a land of liberty, of great 
wealth, and wide freedom which they have never known in 
their home lands and that the great majority of these are ai 
the intellectual level of boys twelve to fourteen years of age. 
They cannot speak our language. They fall under the influence 
of a gang leader and many times a leader of low motives. 
They are part of the crowd and are controlled by the 
psychology of the crowd. 

Many a man of a high intellectual level, but who does not 
know our language, is compelled to accept work with those of 
less intellectual ability. He notes what he thinks are wrongs 
visited upon them. His task does not require all of his ability 
and often he becomes the disturbing element in the labor 
organization. These men are bound to be led but they ought 
to be classified and led by those who understand their ability 
and can fit them into the position which they are qualified to fill. 

Not only is this true in industry but it is true in politics. 
About 85% percent of our votes are cast by persons below 
the intellectual level of 15% years. They are not able to con- 
sider intelligently the policies or programs advocated by politi- 
cal leaders. They are won by emotional appeals and yet a “C 
minus” man exerts as much influence at the ballot box as a 
class ‘A’? man. What psychology is teaching us is that the 
persons of class “B’’ and “A” must assume responsibility for 
the direction of the classes below them and direct those classes 
in the interests of the classes rather than in the interests of the 


leaders. Political campaigns are lost or won by catch-words 


and slogans, not by a consideration of vital economic or social 
principles. We have many examples in American history. 


——— 


—— ee eee 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS. 299 


One presidential campaign was conducted on the slogan of 
“54-40 or fight,” another on ““Tippecanoe and Tyler too,’ one 
on “The Full Dinner Pail,’ one was lost on “Rum, Romanism, 
and Rebellion.” 

We must face the question of responsibility. It is very 
well to advocate equal rights if we understand what we are 
talking about. Men are not created free and equal. Equal 
rights do not necessarily mean the same rights. Parents and 
children in the home have equal rights but they do not have the 
same rights. Think of a man of the intellectual level of twelve 
years and another of nineteen years. Each one should have 
those things that minister to the best that he can enjoy. The 
second one has an appreciation of art and secures a real satis- 
faction in certain etchings, tapestries, etc. The man of the 
intellectual level of twelve years has little appreciation of these 
things. Each is entitled to the things which he can enjoy, the 
things which will bring him as large a satisfaction as other 
things bring the other man. 

Children with their toys get as much satisfaction out of 
them as their parents get with a Packard Twin-six. You 
might as well say that every child should have a Twin-six if 
his father has one, because democracy means equality. That 
cannot be, and somehow society must be led to see it. Justice 
means that each one shall have an opportunity to realize his 
desires to the full extent of his ability. Some day, somehow, 
that idea must be carried into politics and into industry. Some- 
how our leaders, political and industrial, capitalists and laborers, 
must come to recognize that fact. Psychology is making this 
great contribution thru a study of men and in discovering a 
method of arriving at their intellectual levels so that each may 
be directed to an activity in which his ability may be used to 
the full. 


300 PRAGTICAL; PSY CHOLOGY, 


The Intelligence Tests, as used in the army, coordinate | 
very closely with the grading of persons according to wages — 
earned and according to the ages at which they leave school. © 
The table opposite used by Goddard and taken from the De- 
partment of Labor report on wages, the Department of Educa- — 
tion report, and the report of the Army Intelligence Tests, 
bears this out: 

It is noted in the above table that the 9 percent who earned 
$150.00 or $200.00 a year are about on a par with the 13 per- 
cent who left school in the 4th grade at the age of ten years — 
and that these fall in with the 10 percent in the “D”— group 
of the Army Intelligence Test at the mental age of ten, and a 
similar result will be found in the others. This illustrates 
again the fact that what one can do depends upon what he 
knows, and his ability to know can be quite accurately deter- — 
mined by an intelligence test. | 

Mental tests modeled after the Army Alpha tests have been 
used in the State Institutions of New Jersey for the last six 
years and have proven very satisfactory. They have helped 
to discover the individual and by a thoro analysis of the indi- 
vidual and the work to be done the directors are able to put 
men at the work which they can do well and be happy in doing. 
These intelligence tests have been used in the selecting of high 
grade executives with great satisfaction to all concerned. 

When one’s intellectual level has been determined he is on 
the way to make a satisfactory place for himself in present day 
civilization. Psychology enables one to understand himself 
and to understand others so that he may be in a position to 
use his ability to the best advantage. 

success.—All of these things have a bearing on what we 
usually have in mind when we speak of success. Psychology 
is making it clear every day that real success depends not upon 





Q89][09 0} OF) GI 





61 ‘81 9 9) 93 aN 9) AV Ss “Hi oyENpeIL) £ oszi¢ JIAO bP] c 
41 Ql 4 5; “dy » 0 SS PUSHY 201 Onc Se ae 
CI asy [eo ‘Anois sy UL YAOI WIZ Joe aavay €zo0oo01¢-ooZ¢ ,, Le 
yoom 
tyad Si¢ 
lees ” mojaq ary OL yg ysuy jou og = Zgueyy, =sszT ,, = 89 
VI-EI re ” 99 coo» 9 azjP1 ‘eI ” Ys yi ” ” Lz 009 O51 ” It 
cl ,, ” ” eee yer O0¢ cl, ” qo ,, ” vrjoob -ont ” gl 
Liss: PChyin od tie Se lilac eee C1jook -oSz2 ral 
OI V7 Tey PY ‘noisy <— dy, UI %oi| OL asy ‘apeiy wr ur oavayT %f1looz¢-oS1$ wey %6 
UsIP[IyD OOIL Jo SI9UIvI 9BEM OOI JO 


JOOHOS SIOVMA 





301 


302 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


money, position, or power, but it depends upon service rendered. 
Someone has stated it as follows: 


SUCGEH SS 


It’s doing your job the best you can 
And being just to your fellow-man; 
It’s making money, but holding friends, 
And staying true to your aims and ends; 
It’s figuring how and learning why, 
And looking forward and thinking high, 
And dreaming a little and doing much; 
It’s always keeping in closest touch 
With what is finest in word and deed; 
It’s being thoro, yet making speed; 
It’s struggling on with a will to win, 
But taking loss with a cheerful grin; 
It’s sharing sorrow and work and mirth 
And making better this good old earth; 
It’s serving, striving, through strain and stress, 
It’s doing your noblest—that’s success. 
—The American Press. 


More and more it is becoming clear to far-seeing men that 
the great business of modern civilization is the making of men, 
that before one can be a real lawyer, a real clergyman, a real 
doctor, he must be a man; that the first great business of 
industry is not the making of goods but the making of men 
and that conditions in industry must be such that there shall 
be aroused those impulses, desires, and ambitions in the men 
which tend to establish confidence in their minds toward those 
who do the planning. It is true also of the individual, as he 
thinks of his own future development. His chief aim should 
not be the securing of a larger salary, a more prominent posi- 
tion, the possession of more power, but by all means possible 
to make of himself a bigger, broader, wiser man. That is the- 
foundation upon which all of these others are built, if they are 
ever built. 

The idea of service is rather new in our civilization, altho. 
the word is old. The great difficulty with modern industry is 
that it has not learned what the word “service” means. Mod- 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 303 


ern business has not yet been put on a “service” basis and it 
will not be until business is made a profession with a rank 
somewhat akin to the professions of law, medicine, the min- 
istry, dentistry, teaching, etc. The difference between a profes- 
sion and business as it is now conducted rests almost entirely 
in the attitude toward service. The business man looks for- 
ward to the time when he will have secured a competency and 
then will retire, and after that render some service to the com- 
munity. If this idea is the correct one, it is not possible for 
anyone to render effective service to his community unless he 
can acquire a competency, but this viewpoint is wrong. The 
business man must serve the community thru his business and 
the laboring man must serve the community thru his labors. 

Men enter the different professions with the dominant idea 
of serving the community. Incidentally they expect to make a 
living and if they are successful and fortunate, perhaps to 
acquire a competency, at least sufficient for the exigencies of 
old age. The doctor takes up the study of medicine because he 
believes it will give him his greatest opportunity to serve 
humanity. The lawyer of noble ideals enters the profession of 
the law for the same purpose. Men enter the ministry of the 
various churches because they believe they have the largest 
opportunity to serve humanity, but up to the present time men 
have entered business for the sole purpose of making money, 
some of them hoping that after they have made it they may use 
some of it for the good of society. 

The same attitude of mind pretty generally prevails 
thruout society. The laborer works for wages, and not be- 
cause he expects to serve anybody. And if he secures the 
wages and the hours that meet his demands he is satisfied. The 
best type of civilization will never again be satisfied with men 
who work simply for wages or who conduct business enter- 
prises simply for profit. Psychology makes it perfectly clear 


304. PRAGTICALTES YGHOLOGY 


to the world today that no man can be his best who does not 
render a service to humanity beyond that for which he is paid. 

Someone has called attention to the fact that three great 
maxims have been expressed at different periods of the world’s 
history and they have a bearing on the matter of success. One 
is that statement of Socrates, “Know thyself.” It is the place 
for man to begin and it is the task which will engage his atten- 
tion to the last. A thoro attempt for one to know himself leads 
to knowledge of science and of culture and lifts him out of the 
rut to the broad highway of accomplishment. 

Another statement is that of Marcus Aurelius, ‘Control 
thyself.””, Many a man has knowledge of facts and of princi- 
ples, knows something of himself, and yet for some reason does 
not have the power and the ability to invest that effort to satis- 
factory ends. But one who has gained self-control finds that it 
leads to morality and power and puts into his hands the ability 
to do. 

The third maxim is a statement of Jesus of Nazareth, 
“Deny thyself.’”’ One who is imbued with the motives of self- 
denial, and everyone who accomplishes anything worth while 
has had to face it, realizes that he must give up the pleasures of 
the moment and spend the hour in study and contemplation or 
in hard labor in order to secure the greater satisfaction of a 
later day. To one who has learned to deny himself the good 
for the sake of the best, finds that it leads to a life of service 
and sacrifice which brings the greatest of rewards—the love 
and confidence of fellow-men. 

These things do not come by chance, they come as a result 
of clear thinking and earnest effort. It is the thinking in the 
end that determines the status of the man, 

A man should be judged, not by cast or creed 
The meat he eats, the vintage that he drinks; 


Not by the way he fights, or loves, or sins, 
But by the quality of the thoughts he thinks. 


VOCATIONAL: GUIDANGE, AND SUCCESS) 305 


If one wishes to succeed he must follow the advice of one 
of the teachers of two thousand years ago, who, in writing to 
Timothy, said, “Take heed to thyself,’ and who in another 
connection said, ‘‘Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever 
wins respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever 1s 
lovable, whatever is of good repute, and if there is any other 
virtue which you regard as particularly excellent, think on 
these things.” 

It is becoming more evident every day that cooperation 
must supersede competition, that democracy must replace au- 
tocracy. Instead of war peace must come in industry, politics, 
and religion. Men can no longer attain real success by tram- 
pling others under foot. Men can not be made Christian by 
fagot, rack, and wheel. They may be scared away from hell, 
but they cannot be driven into heaven. Men in industry may 
be driven to labor but it is an expensive process. Exploiting 
by the employer and shirking by the employees is ruinous to 
any business and both groups must learn it. The best efforts 
of men cannot be bought with wages. That can be accom- 
plished thru appealing to the best in men and that can be 
accomplished only by implanting in the minds of all concerned 
in any enterprise the idea of cooperation. We must work 
together, husband and wife, employer and employee, teacher 
and pupil, physician and patient, lawyer and client, producer 
and consumer, rich and poor, intelligent and ignorant. “No 
man liveth to himself alone.’ ‘Your success depends upon 
thousands and not upon yourself alone. Your family, neigh- 
borhood, industry, nation, the world is not safe so long as any 
individual anywhere is not safe. I must defend your rights 
whether you wish me to or not, because when your rights are 
jeopardized mine are, when you suffer I do, when Europe suf- 
fers America pays. The peoples of the world are feeling their 
interdependence as never before. You cannot become educated 


306 PRAQTICATLY PSYCHOLOGY 


and everyone else remain ignorant; you cannot succeed and 
everyone else fail; you cannot make the most of yourself with- 
out helping every one of your associates to make the most of 
himself. 

There are some fundamental elements that must find a 
place in the motives of every person who deserves success in 
life. Let me name a few of them. Your attitude toward them 
should be settled once for all. They are: 

(1) Know and Not Guess.—Determine that as far as 
it is possible you will know for yourself and not depend upon 
the opinions or guesses of others. Determine that you will 
know some one thing better than anyone else knows it, and 
that you will make yourself capable of doing some one thing 
better than anyone else can do it. 

(2) Stand for the Right.—Determine that at all haz- 
ards you will stand for the right as it is given you to see the 
right. Never let it be honestly said of you that “expediency is 
the better part of valor’ when questions of right enter in. 
When one has so determined, the only question involved is to 
decide what is right. To determine the right is not always 
easy, but when it is determined, stand for it at all costs. One 
may find a thousand reasons to justify, in the eyes of others, 
the things he does, but he can never justify unrighteous acts 
in his own eyes. One must live with himself not only during 
the activities of the day, but also thru the long watches of the 
night when friends, companions, and fellow-workers have gone 
their way. 

(3) Follow Truth Wherever it Leads.—“‘Ye shall know 
the truth and the truth shall make you free,” and it is the only 
thing that will, but one who turns his face away from the light 
of truth becomes a slave, the meanest one can know. The 
world has known thousands who would die for the truth, as we 
have millions who would die for our country, but what the 


VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE, AND SUCCESS 307 


world needs is men who will live for truth, and men who will 
live for country. 

(4) Grant Justice Before You Demand It. —The sur- 
est way to insure justice is to practise being just. No one has 
any right to demand from another what he has not already 
made a principle of action in his own life. Too many men go 
thru life fighting for their rights. “It is more blessed to give 
than it is to receive.” There is more real satisfaction in 
granting rights to others than there is in fighting for your own. 
The best thing about your own right is that you can sur- 
render it. 

(5) Serve Before You Ask Service.—Instead of fret- 
ting because your employer, parents, friends do not do as much 
for you as you think they ought, try doing the most you can for 
them. Instead of waiting for the person you meet to extend 
a greeting, try expressing a hearty “How d’y do!” yourself. 
Try proving yourself a Good Samaritan when men are in 
trouble instead of acting the priest and the Levite. ‘“‘Whoso- 
ever would be great among you shall be your servant; and 
whosoever would be first shall be the servant of all.” 

The spirit of service indicates a willingness to do a little 
more than is expected, a willingness to do for those in trouble 
or in need and do it without hope of reward except the satis- 
faction that comes in the doing. It is just the opposite of the 
spirit which “levies all the traffic will bear.” 

(6) Forgive Before You Ask Forgiveness.—Most of 
the hard, unkind things are said without sensing their real 1m- 
port. Most unkind acts are done while one is “in a temper.” 
Many times friendships are broken and happiness ruined 
because we will not forgive. We hold a grudge and wait to get 
even. It requires a much bigger mind to forgive than it does 
to ask forgiveness. It requires courage to ask forgiveness, but 
it requires a master mind to grant it. Forgiveness means that 


308 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


the old relations have been reestablished, and that the one who 
has forgiven forgets the action or the word forgiven and treats 
the one forgiven as tho he had never committed the act. The 
one who forgives overlooks what has been done and never calls 
the attention of others to what he has done. Of course the 
one who has been forgiven never forgets it. The joy of for- 
giveness is his and he is thereafter in duty bound to grant that 
same measure of happiness to all who seek forgiveness from 
him. 

(7) Ask for Yourself Only What You Ask for All.— 
Do you wish for opportunities for success? Then you must 
ask similar opportunities: for others. Do you desire shorter 
hours of labor for those in your trade? Then demand shorter 
hours for all trades. Do you want better living conditions for 
your family? Then ask better conditions for all. In reality 
you must apply the Golden Rule in its widest reaches. What- 
soever ye would that men should do unto you at any time, in 
any place, under any circumstances, that you ought to do to 
all men, at all times, in all places, under all circumstances. 

The aim of this book is to help you understand yourself 
so that you may make the most of yourself and win for your- 
self a degree of success commensurate with your ideals. The 
application of the principles herein laid down will help you to 
that end. 


“Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 
As the swift seasons roll! 
Leave thy low vaulted past! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,. 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!” 


SE eee 


ee 


GHA UE Raa 
GROUPS AND RACES 


IN the preceding chapters we have considered the develop- 
ment of the mind of the individual, and the resultant behavior 
as he has reacted to his environment, but that environment has 
been almost entirely viewed as that of the physical universe. 
It will be our aim now to give some attention to the individual 
as one of a group, and try to discover what the effect of the 
group is upon the individual and vice versa. 

New Ideas.—This will appear important as soon as we 
remind ourselves that most of our great unsolved problems are 
social problems, and that social problems must be solved by 
social groups and not by individuals. Of course there is a 
large place for individual thot and initiative. Social groups 
do not develop new ideas. A new idea is always the product 
of a single brain. Some individual thinks beyond his group 
and acts in accordance with his thinking and then there 
may be progress. Thots do not emerge from “collective 
consciousness,” but always bear the stamp of individuality. 
Changes are made in the behavior of the group from time to 
time because some keen individual gives a new emphasis to 
some idea already in the minds of members of the group, or 
suggests some new form of action to accomplish an old pur- 
pose, and the group follows his suggestion. 

The individual was born of a community and into a com- 
munity and will live in community probably and that com- 
munity will continue to exist after he is dead, He learns the 

309 


310 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


language of the group or community. In learning the lan- 
guage, he learned the ideas of the group. He imitates the 
actions of the group as they have been, now are, and will 
continue to be except as such changes as have been referred to 
above may enter into and slightly modify the customs and 
habits. 

Group Consciousness.—The group consciousness is the 
source from which the individual gets his manner of speech, 
his habits of thot and his way of doing things and is the 
court of last resort in deciding what is fact. The experience 
of any one individual may be duplicated by some or many or 
none of the group. If itis duplicated by any appreciable num- 
ber, then the one whose experience has been duplicated may 
appeal to the common consciousness of the group. It then 
becomes a fact of group consciousness. If no one finds his 
experience agreeing with the claims of the first, it will be set 
down in the minds of the group as untrue. . 

This not only holds true in regard to facts apprehended 
thru the senses, but is also true in regard to those inner feel- 
ings, thots, desires of men. It may be fear, alarm, some com- 
mon purpose, awe, or what-not. If it is common to the group 
and experienced by them all, it is a fact of their common con- 
sciousness, and they will, so far as action is necessary, act 
upon that common consciousness. 

Enlarging Consciousness.—We pointed out at the end of 
Chapter One that the aim of the individual should be to enlarge 
continuously his self-consciousness. It is equally necessary 
for the group if it is to make any progress as a social factor or 
unit. The enlarging of the consciousness of the individual 
comes thru contact with teachers, parents, and all of the 
older members of the group until he reached adulthood. In 
most cases thereafter little or no thot is given by him to con- 
tinuing the process of growth. So there is a tendency for 


GROUPS AND RACES 311 


the group to follow its traditions and customs and unless 
thrown out of equilibrium to make no determined effort toward 
broadening or deepening its consciousness. The social con- 
sciousness opposes individual independence. It insists on con- 
formity. The group believes that the individual’s welfare is 
best conserved by such conformity. Things have always been 
done this way. Why change now? 

The smallest social group is the family and in spite of all 
the attempts that have been made to destroy it, it still persists 
and persists because it is social. With the appearance of the 
family a new set of laws begins to operate. The unit of selec- 
tion is changed. It is no longer the survival of the fittest 
individual but the fittest family, that is, the group. The strug- 
gle is now shifted from individuals to groups. Among primi- 
tive men there seems to have been constant warfare between 
families. There is said to be no word for friend in primitive 
languages. ‘The stranger was always an enemy and the only 
thing to do with an enemy was to kill him. Then it was dis- 
covered that a dead enemy was less valuable than a live slave, 
so the conquered enemy was enslaved and made to work. 
When it became economically unprofitable to continue slavery, 
the slaves were freed, and later educated and still later called 
friends and perchance sometime will be called brothers. 

With every advanced stage of this development there 
appeared an enlarging consciousness of the group. Those acts 
which proved economically profitable, came to be regarded as 
good, and later as right. Those that were economically un- 
profitable were bad, and later came to be looked upon as wrong. 
So murder, slavery, and concubinage have come to be looked 
upon by most civilized peoples as wrong, although some people 
living in civilized communities still practice them, especially 
the last. 

Psychological Factors.—The intellectual difference be- 


aie PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


tween man of six thousand years ago and now is compara- — 
tively slight. The difference in civilization is enormous. Man — 
has made civilization thru social organization and in turn social — 
organization has made man. Man is extremely individualistic. — 


He becomes socially minded only when he is better cared for 
and better fed. Thru the long process during the ages he has 


learned that he can control to a large degree his environ- — 


ment. Society has not always existed. Man has made it 


and he has discovered that he can remake it. So we find man — 
at the end of the first quarter of the twentieth century with ~ 
an equipment which he has provided himself but which he ~ 





has not learned to use to the best advantages in all respects, — 


but with some hope of making more rapid progress in the 
coming years. 

Man is much more familiar with the structure of society 
than he is with its functions and as the outstanding evils of 
our day are evils of function, it will require patient endeavor 
and, may be, some real struggle to discover the solution for 
some of our problems. This is because the remedy for our 
evils lies not so much in the political realm as some have 
thot. We have come to the place where the first thing many 
of us think of in the face of a problem of society is to have 
a law passed to correct it. We seem to think that everything 
can be done by law. To be sure, the universe is operated ac- 
cording to law but not by such laws as congress or our state 


legislatures make. The psychological factors are coming to — 


play a very much larger part in the solution of our modern 
problems than many are aware of. 

Man has shown indomitable courage and keen insight in dis- 
covering means for controlling the earth, air, and water, in the 
treatment and banishment of disease, in plant and animal 
breeding. Can he show as much in controlling himself? Can 
a group consciousness be developed that will actually sense the 





GROUPS ANDJRAGES B13 


evils needing correction and then discover and apply a remedy? 
Can a group be led to think in terms of the whole, the whole 
community, the whole state, the whole nation, the whole world? 


Is the race still too provincial to deal with such large problems? 
Is ignorance too great, prejudice too strong, or indifference 
_ too deadening 


We have evidence that about 25% of our population can not 


read well enough to be classified with the literates and that 


about as many more could hardly understand what one is driv- 
_ ing at in discussing such problems as society and the state have 
to face. Some light might filter thru into the minds of some 
of these but there is little hope of any suggested solution 


coming from that source. Some one else must make the 


suggestion and then help create a social or group conscious- 
ness that will result in securing a following from among the 
50%, or at least enough of a following to enable the group te 


act in accordance with the judgment of the best of the group: 


_ This again is a psychological matter, not political altho many 


men play politics with it. 


By playing politics I mean any attempt to trade upon the 


ignorance, fears, prejudices of the group in order that theii 


support may be secured for some scheme that will serve the 
interests of the few rather than serve the best interests of the 
many. This feeling is expressed often in the saying “He’s a 
typical politician” which is equivalent to saying, “Look out 
for him. You never know what he is up to.” 

Motives.—The only corrective for such situations is found, 
I believe, in such principles as were referred to in the last chap- 
ter. They apply in individual relationships, family relation- 
ships, group relationships, all relationships. Unless we suggest 
such remedies for the solving of problems of relationships as 
will serve the best interests of all concerned, there is little hope 
of improvement. To that end it seems necessary that in some 


314 PRAGCTIGATARSY CHOTOGY: 


way the group shall discover ways of determining the motives 
of those who aspire to leadership. | 

When individuals or groups face a problem or a supposed — 
problem certain feelings are aroused which make us uneasy, — 
These feelings are often aroused by agitators who have come 
in to save the situation. As a result of the disturbed feelings” 
certain ideas are produced. Then we try to find what seems 
to us logical reasons for holding the ideas. Such ideas so © 
aroused and so held and so bolstered up are what we mean 
by prejudice. What we experience by actually living thru 
events is a very small part of all we think about and feel about. | 
We have few prejudices about what we have lived thru but 
we have many and strong ones about what we have talked about — 
and what we have heard others talk about. We acquire prej- © 
udices before we have any experience at all in a particular 
situation and then, if we later happen to have any experience in — 
that line, we interpret it in terms of our prejudices. This pre-— 
vents us from seeing the matter as it actually is, and also makes" 
us quite unwilling to reopen the matter later. ; 

Prejudice is not confined to the ignorant and uneducated. 
It is found among all classes. We saw in an earlier chapter — 
that the ignorant man is a poor workman, but we can go fur- — 
ther and say that he is a poor politician, a poor employer, a 
poor husband, a poor father, a poor anything, but when igno- 
rance is tied to prejudice, it is the most dangerous combination — 
modern civilization has to face. Prejudice among the educated — 
classes as among the ignorant is often unrecognized by those - 
who hold it. Some 100% Americans are so sincere that they — 
almost convince us that what they say represents the truth, 
and then we discover that while they are quite well informed — 
about some things they are woefully ignorant in regard to 5 
others, but that knowing some things they have assumed others 
hoping they may be true and so come to believe them to be. — 





GROUPS AND RACES 318 


Such persons are dangerous anywhere in any walk of life. 
They are not fit to lead and they will not follow. Such leaders 
in the end wreck whatever they touch. 

Many men who recognize the power of prejudice are not 
above appealing to it for their own selfish ends. They seem 
to follow the motto, “The end justifies the means.” An 
example of this may be seen in the reports of a United States 
senator’s campaign for reelection to the senate. The senator 
had the reputation of being opposed to Japanese immigration. 
During his campaign literature was distributed with the de- 
mand, “Keep California white.’”’ Some one connected with the 
management of the campaign soon discovered that there were 
many Negroes in that state who were voters and the call to 
“Keep California white” did not attract them. Then the motto 
was changed and became, ‘‘Keep California American.” One 
would judge from this report that while the senator wanted to 
oppose the Japanese, he desired much more to be reelected. 
Then the question of sincerity arises, and we feel that we need 
more facts than his campaign presented. 

A similar situation was indicated a few years ago when the 
Navy League was advocating preparedness. Congressman 
Tavener laid bare some of the relations existing between the 
Navy League and the great steel companies, the nickel manu- 
facturers and the munitions manufacturers, and again we felt 
that we were not being furnished all the facts as to motive 
when the cry for preparedness was presented. Was the real 
aim to protect the nation or to sell munitions? We did not 
know. Was it in the interests of the many or in the interests 
of the few? 

Race Antagonisms.—When one reads from a recent book 
such statements as the following he wonders just what the 
motive is, ‘‘As colored men realized the significance of it all 
[The white man rushing to destruction thru war] they looked 


316 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


into each other’s eyes and there saw the light of undreamed — 
hopes.’ “The colored world, long restive under white domi- — 
nation, is being welded by the most fundamental of instincts, — 
the instinct of self-preservation. ...” “Further white ex- — 
pansion in the Far East has become impossible. Any such 
attempt would: instantly weld together Japanese imperialism 
and Chinese nationalism in a sacred umion, etc.” ‘This is 
the secret of her [Japan’s] aggressive foreign policy, her 
chronic imperialism, her extravagant dreams of conquest and 
world dominion. ...’ “Bound together by something subtle — 
and intangible, the brown men of Asia everywhere face the — 
white man in sullen hostility.’ “Relations between whites and 
blacks are bad in South Africa, and are becoming worse.” 
“The menace of Bolshevism is simply incalculable.’ “We 
whites will have to abandon our tacit assumption of permanent 
domination over Asia, while the Asiatics will have to forego ~ 
their dreams of migration to white lands and penetration of © 
Africa and Latin America.” ‘‘Even within the white world, 
migration of lower human types like those who have worked — 
havoc in the United States must be rigorously curtailed. . . 
The italics are mine. When one reads such statements as those 
quoted, he can hardly help but feel that while there may be 
some truth contained in them, there is more feeling and con- ~ 
siderable prejudice. The author seems more intent upon giving © 
us his conclusions than he is in showing how and why he ~ 
arrived at them, which is always a bad plan if one wishes to ; 
serve all concerned. We feel like calling another witness who f 
knows something about the other side of the question, and who | 
will give us more light and less heat. F 

Elbert H. Gary, writing in Collier’s Weekly for February 14, — 
1925, on the immigration question says: a 

Japanese.—‘‘Published declarations that war between Japan 
and the United States is threatened arise largely from an — 


1? 
e 





GROUPS AND RACES | 317 


attempt on the part of minorities in each country to inflame the 
public mind and, if possible, to precipitate serious trouble. In 
some cases, perhaps, the jingoes are sincere and express their 
honest beliefs, but in the majority of instances I think the 
motives behind the efforts to bring about trouble are unworthy 
_and reprehensible. Certainly they do not represent the mass of 
opinion nor the prevailing general sentiment of the country. 

“As a whole the people of the Umted States entertain for 
the Japanese a feeling of cordial, sincere and abiding friendship. 
This includes the President of the United States and lus Cabi- 
net. It also includes those members of the Congress of the 
United States who are not influenced solely by personal political 
interests when they vote. 

“In some parts of the country the labor elements are antago- 
nistic to the increase of Japanese inhabitants for the reason 
that the Japanese are thrifty, industrious and economical and, 
consequently, furnish a competition in industry that is supposed 
to affect the earnings of the other working nationals. Tis, 
of course, is selfish and unreasonable, and would be disapproved 
by every fair-minded, intelligent American citizen, All na- 
tionals of foreign strain start with a low wage and steadily 
work themselves up to the American standard both of income 
and living. The man on the street insists that competition is 
good for business and business men. It is equally good for 
labor. 

“The question of permitting immigration of Orientals to 
this country is, however, a political one and must be determined 
by the laws of the land. It seems to me that the true solution 
of the Japanese problem is to find some fair basis for the admis- 
sion to this country of a limited number of Japanese, governed 
and controlled by a percentage plan similar to the one that 
applies to immigrants from other countries, 

“What the Japanese objects to is discrimination against him 


318 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


simply because of the color of his skin. It is not to be won- 
dered that he makes this objection. The Japanese are a strong, 
virile, intelligent, fair-minded people; they are certain to occupy 
a leading position in the ranks of nations. They stand for — 
civilization, for stability and the creation and enforcement of 
sound and progressive laws. They are peace-loving; they do 
not desire war with any other country. They are farsighted 
and understand the necessity and the propriety of being ready 
for war in self-defense. In this respect they are in no wise 
different from the British or the Americans or the French or 
the Italians. It would be very foolish for Japan to be totally 
unprepared if unprovoked war should be forced upon her. The 
same is true of the United States and all other countries. 

“As business neighbors the Japanese are very desirable. 
Those of us who have dealt with them have found them honest, 
fair and in every respect equal to the best. Geographical boun- 
daries have made Japan and the United States near neighbors 
as distance is now measured, The two countries have the same 
interests in the Pacific Ocean, and for years to come, if not 
permanently, will be called upon to protect it against tyranny, 
lawlessness and oppression from any source. We should culti- 
vate the friendship of Japan and, likewise, the Japanese should ~ 
do everything possible to secure and hold the friendship of the 
United States. 

“Indeed, in my opinion, there is no real danger of war be- 
tween the two countries. Both realize to the fullest extent that 
war generally defeats the victor, though this would appear to 
be a contradiction. It impoverishes a nation and its people. 
It destroys life. It devastates the land. It brings waste, misery — 
and suffering. It interrupts normal, desirable progress; more, 
it causes retrogression and places the country back in the cal- 
endar of years. 

“Whenever the question of war between these countries 1s 


GROUPS AND RACES 319 


raised, we may consider certain well-recognized principles. No 
single person knows everything. No one possesses all the 
virtues, certainly not to the exclusion of others. No individual 
or nation 1s always right.” [The italics are the author’s.] 

Bishop Fred Fisher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
writing for the New York Christian Advocate of February 12, 
1925, says: 

“The human race is now experiencing a general recrudes- 
cence of national and racial consciousness. Just how much the 
war had to do with this is not certain. The beginning of the 
century saw mankind consciously drifting toward international 
comity. The present decade sees us consciously reverting to 
egoistic claims of superiority. 

Nordics.—‘“‘Among all the things which divide the human 
race, the most deadly is the present tendency on the part of 
self-appointed Nordic specialists to demand mobilization along 
racial lines. This is much more terrible than mobilization along 
patriotic or national lines, for the simple reason that nationality 
has sometimes been determined by arbitrary and temporary 
divisions, whereas an appeal to race is more instinctive and 
atavistic. It is an appeal which will rouse with greater 
ferociousness all the animal prejudices and instincts. The man 
or group of men appealing to this prejudice is playing with fire 
and with the most deadly human explosive. 

“It is a strange thing that the entire group now making this 
appeal is composed of representatives of the white race, and of 
a very small section of that race. One wonders whether the 
modern howl of Nordics may not be an evidence of conscious 
decline and therefore the result of fear or deliberate brag. 
We have all noticed many times in the experience of individuals 
and of groups that the biggest claim to supremacy is made in 
the hour of decline. It is a sort of defense mechanism as if 
fearing competition. In the recent immigration bill adopted by 


320 PRAGHICATNRSY CHOL@OGA: 


our American Congress, provision is made for the largest num- 
ber of immigrants to be admitted from the Federated German 
States, which group of states was supposed to have come near 
wrecking the world. Are we not “lightning-change-artists”’ ? 
First we stir up the youth of America to enlist in a gigantic 
war to save the world from this terrible Teutonic monster. 
Then, presto change! we turn around and claim the superior 
race to be that very race of which the previous German Empire 
was one of the purest representatives. Did we not hear all our 
jingoists proclaim the Teutonic ‘“‘super-man’’ to be the most 
terrible psychological fiction which human history had de- 
veloped? Yet now we are laying claim to that very super- 
racial quality. Certainly all the dark angels of division must 
be laughing in their lair! 

“Furthermore, did we not, during the war, put lowest in 
the scale those nations which maintained neutrality? Yet the 
second highest quota in our new immigration bill is given to 
Sweden and Norway, who remained absolutely neutral and did 
not participate in the gigantic task of conquering their neigh- 
boring Nordic demon, while we exclude our Asiatic ally, Japan. 
Oh, consistency, thy name is Congressman! Mark you, I am 
not saying that Norway did not have a right to maintain neu- 
trality, nor am I saying that America was wrong in her fight 
against Germany. I am simply calling attention to the strange 
fact that a few years ago we thought that the whole world had 
to rise against the Nordic race to save mankind from destruc- 
tion, and now we seek to place the crown upon the Nordic 
brow. 


“The white race, all told, represents less than one-third of 


mankind. European expansion, during the last four hundred 


years, has gone forward with startling aggression through suc- 
cessive imperial régimes—the Dutch, the Portuguese, the 





Ki 


% 

) 

i 
7 


ee te OE. Sh Se at a 


GROUPS AND RACES 321 


Spanish, the British, and the American. It matters little 
whether these systems have been military, political, or eco- 
nomic. We have gradually expanded, by the use of force, the 
sphere of European influence, until the European standard of 
life has become practically universal and compulsory. When 
an imperial power wishes to judge whether a subject nation is 
ready for independent government, it naturally concludes that 
preparedness for self-government must mean complete equip- 
ment to manage government on the European basis—involving 
European language, customs, transportation, and methods of 
military and parliamentary procedure. 

“This expansion has given us a jaunty sense of superiority, 
and we have in many instances mistaken power and the prod- 
ucts of education for inherent racial superiority. It might be 
conceded that at the present time the white race im general will 
show a superiority over the Negro race in general. But 1s it 
because of inherent racial superiority or because of a larger 
educational development through a series of generations? Our 
sustained emphasis upon education and democracy has paral- 
leled the marvelous scientific discoveries of the last century. 
Most of these discoveries and applications have been made by 
the people who have inherited the advantages of this sustained 
educational system. Suppose the same methods and processes 
of education had been applied to the brown or yellow or black 
race and denied to us. Might they not have been the people to 
have entered into the scientific discoveries, thereby creating for 
themselves the tools with which to wield a universal power ? 

Education.—‘“A study of the reports of the American army 
shows that the literate Negroes from the Middle-Western 
States of the North surpassed the literate Negroes of the South, 
and also surpassed the literate whites from practically a dozen 
of the Southern States. The purest Nordics in America are 
the mountain whites of the South. Is it not, therefore, passing 


322 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


strange that these pure Nordics did not surpass the pure 
Africans in the intelligence tests? It will be seen from a simi- 
lar study that the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island 
surpassed certain Middle-Western States. It is a patent fact 
that a veritable tide of Mediterranean stock has immigrated to 
New England, Now, according to the crowing of the Nordic 
cock, the pure Nordics of the Middle States should have sur- 
passed the Mediterraneans of the New England States. But 
the exact reverse is true. Professor William C. Bagley has 
done an inestimable service in calling attention to the fact that 
very probably the more highly developed educational system of 
New England caused the Mediterraneans to surpass the Nordics 
of the Middle West, and the better educational system of the 
Middle North caused the trained A fricans to surpass the South- 
ern whites. In other words, it was not race or color of skin, 
but education that determined the results. 


“Naturally, any one interested in ethnological progress be- 
lieves in the limited application of eugenic principles, but the 
height of absurdity is reached when an author regards all 
philanthropists as enemies of the human race because he claims 
they are putting crutches in the armpits of the weak races. 
The true philanthropist, then, becomes one who deliberately 
shoots down, murders, or chloroforms every unfortunate in the 
economic, political and physical world! Those who believe in 
cleaning up the vice sections of a city, whether in the Orient or 
the Occident, are fools and dreamers, and those who attempt it 
are ignorant and blind. What they should do is to take a milj- 
tary company into the slums and shoot down all the aged 
women on the front steps, and all the children in the streets, 
meantime making certain that the superior class, which lives off 
the products of the oppressed, shall go scot free and thrive. If 
we sincerely believe in eugenics, then the only scientific method 


GROUPS AND RACES 323 


of maintaining our place among the races, is to teach birth 
control to the Indian, to the Chinese, to the Japanese, and to 
the African. If the white race alone concentrates upon eugen- 
ics and birth control, while ignoring all other populations of 
the world, it must in the end be overrun by the inevitable 
growth of other peoples. For, after all, history proves that 
numbers count. If we sincerely believe in democracy, the safe 
thing to do is to teach democracy to every race and every com- 
munity in the world, and likewise to teach them the science, 
philosophy, and religion which alone make democracy safe. 
Democracy in the hands of alleged degenerates is a dangerous 
weapon, To be consistent, we must do one of two things. 
Either act upon the claim to superiority and maintain an abso- 
lute monarchy, guaranteeing that the monarchs shall always 
represent the superior race, and keep all other races in subjec- 
tion; or act upon a belief in the comparative equality of the 
races, and consistently teach democracy together wth all the 
arts and sciences which must accompany this doctrine. Herein 
lies the world’s safety and progress. 

Nordic Rage—‘“The whole Nordic rage is a false and 
criminal psychology. Its authors and promoters are prophets 
of disaster. They are frightened jingoists, mobilizing the white 
race for defeat. Even if their fundamental facts were right, 
they are wrong in their interpretation. The only sensible pro- 
gram based upon their own laboriously marshalled exhibits, 
would be a program of universal education, co-operation, and 
understanding among all races. The advanced should attempt 
to educate the backward until all peoples stand upon the same 
platform of intelligent living. That accomplished, they could 
sit down together and plan unitedly—instead of the supposedly 
superior group being constantly under the necessity of manu- 

facturing arms and building battleships to keep the supposedly 


324 PRACTICAIIE SY GHOLOUGY, 


backward always backward, the ignorant forever ignorant, and 
the subject forever enslaved. 

“After all, our alleged superiority stretches back merely 
through a few brief decades. Who knows whether our system 
is to be the permanent criterion of greatness? Humility will 
help us. While carrying our culture to other peoples of the 
world, we might profitably invite them to bring us their sys- 
tems of thought and their methods of social organization and 
life. By the mingling and development of the two we shall 
probably arrive at the true human goal.” [The italics are the 
author’s. | 

Individual and Group,—Just as in the early history of the 
family the interests of all became more important than the 
interests of any, so the time is bound to come when the interests 
of all of the industrial group will become more important than 
the interests of any part of the group, the interests of the 
whole state more important than the interests of any division 
of the state, the interests of the whole nation more important 
than those of any state, the interests of all nations more impor- 
tant to the world than the interests of any nation. 

Each group for itself and the devil take the hindmost cannot 
serve the best interests of the group any longer. Interdepen- 
dence makes it impossible. Every group must give to get as 
the individual must. We must serve in order to be served. 
The world is filled with examples of commensal groups. Those 
organisms which aid each other against a common enemy have 
a much better chance to survive. It has already been pointed 
out that a live slave was more valuable than a dead enemy. 
Biology is filled with many instances of two animals serving 
each other. The pilot fish that swims in front of the shark 
and directs it to its prey, the bird that picks the teeth of the 
crocodile and: the fleas from its back, are well-known instances 
of such relationship. There is a mutual interdependence of all 


GROUPS AND RACES 325 


living things. Civilized man could not live without domestic 
animals. We saw in the first chapter that man is himself made 
up of more than thirty different kinds of cells each with its 
particular work to do and if any group fails to do its part 
trouble arises and sooner or later death ensues. 

There is a commensalism existing between nations. No man 
liveth to himself alone, and no nation can, no race can. The 
relationship of races is commensal. We need the races who 
live in the tropics and they need us. Shall we fight to see who 
is to be supreme? Both are supreme, if both are necessary, one 
in one line, the other in another line. We invest millions of 
money in the tropics and those people must be protected in 
order that they may serve us as we serve them. They live 
where we cannot. They produce what we cannot. We can 
invent and manufacture machinery with which they can serve 
themselves and us. But who made them ours to exploit or 
who gave us the right to dominate them? Lincoln said some: 
thing about no man being wise enough or good enough to gov- 
ern another without the other’s consent. Is not the same true 
of nations? 

Not only are we related as commensals when we think of 
nations and races but we are commensal as groups in our own 
land. We must have representatives of other races to help us. 
We must have men of other nationalities to work with and 
for us. All of the talk about keeping America Nordic, what- 
ever that means, sounds quite academic in the light of our 
origins and present needs. Before America can be kept Nordic 
it will have to be made Nordic. There are several millions of 
Negroes who are as much American as any one here except the 
real Americans, the Indians. Are they to be made Nordic? 
If America is to be kept Nordic, then the Nordic must do the 
menial work of America, and so becomes at once the agent 
and the victim of his own superior civilization. This he has 


326 PRAOTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


never been willing to do and there is no indication that he is 
willing to begin now. Hence, he will admit to the country 
those of other nations and races who will do the work for him. 
Acquaintance and friendship of some will follow. Intermar- 
riage will result and a new mongrel such as the Nordic is 
himself will begin to take a hand in the affairs of the com- 
munity and the state. This has been the experience of men 
everywhere. Immigration laws may stem the tide for a brief 
time but immigration laws can never stop the intermingling of 
races. They can never stop the migratory movements of 
peoples. 

Those who want to keep America Nordic claim a superiority 
for as much Nordic as there is in us now and as one whose line 
of descent runs back in England to a time previous to the com- 
ing of the Conqueror, I am rejoiced at any real claim for good 
quality that can be made and substantiated for the “Nordics.” 
But wherein does that superiority rest? 

Race Superiority.—We have not now and of course never 
have had any intelligence tests for nations and races. Anthro- 
pologists say there are no superior and inferior races. No race 
is superior by natural capacity to any other race. So far as 
we can see or understand the qualities and motives with which 
the primal sympathies deal men are remarkably alike. They 
are like in all their loves, fears, hates, sorrows. At any rate 
they are very much more alike than unlike. 

The only possible way of forming a larger unit than the 
family was by an enlargement of the idea of kinship on which 
the family rests, and thus came the clan, the tribe, the state, 
the nation, and thus will come the international and the inter- 
racial units. The motive for personal sympathy grows out of 
the intellectual capacity to recognize the essentials of kinship 
in another. 

In the past the American has been characterized by the belief 


GROUPS AND RACES 327 


in the likeness of the neighbor to himself without regard to 
race, creed, color, or speech, and largely on this foundation has 
American civilization made whatever contribution it has made 
to the comity of nations and races. Tribal distinctions have 
more nearly disappeared here, due largely to widespread educa- 
tion, travel and traditions of democracy, and to the general doc- 
trine of brotherhood, at least in principle. The present ten- 
dency, except in a few instances as above noted, is to diminish 
the attention to blood and race and to put it upon likeminded- 
ness. There is in most cases a distinct tendency to break down 
tribal pride and race hatred, and to increase the size of the 
group until it becomes world-wide and to develop some scheme 
for administering world affairs in the interests of the world 
instead of in the interests of a few nations or races. Each will 
retain more or less of its ethnic motives, but all will have a com- 
mon chance in the common life of the world, and none of the 
supposed inherited differences or inherited qualities shall be 
allowed to limit those rights or opportunities. 

Likeness of Men.—Whether or not the anthropologist is 
correct about the matter, we all know that there are individuals 
in all races that are very superior to others in the same group 
and that the mental caliber, the general culture, the ability, etc., 
make them very much nearer the best in our group than are the 
lowest in our group and if we were to choose permanent asso- 
ciates we would choose them rather than these of our own 
group. Likemindedness does not always run in families. It 
often happens that those who think and feel more nearly like 
ourselves do not happen to be any blood relation to us at all so 
far as we can trace. Scientists, literary men, statesmen, busi- 
ness men find a common bond of fellowship often with men 
of other nations and races who think along the lines of their 
own interests and so have come to have a common mind about 


328 PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 


those interests. When they come to know each other each finds 
the other quite like himself in all that makes for real men. 

Every one of these problems will finally find its solution in 
the motives and intelligence of men. Motives and intelligence 
lie in the realm of the psychological. This means that we must 
understand men before we can understand the problems of rela- 
tionships of men. This is being realized more largely than 
ever. Evidence on all sides indicates it. At the last General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church held in Spring- 
field, Mass., in May, 1924, it was resolved, “That we repudiate 
as un-Christian and untrue the idea that certain races are born 
to inherent, fixed superiority and rulership, while others are 
born to inherent fixed inferiority and subordination. We stand 
for the life of open opportunity for all.” This is an indication 
of the mind that is being shown in many directions. The Com- 
mission on Interracial Co-operation is trying to replace unrea- 
soning prejudice and suspicion with the Christian spirit of 
sympathy and helpfulness. These virtues can well stand culti- 
vation by all of us. 

Solution of Problems.—In approaching these problems 
with a hope of finding a way to their solution, we must recog- 
nize that the one essential is to know the facts in each particular 
case, all the facts as far as ascertainable. Someone must see 
the whole problem and if he is a friend of mankind he will sug- 
gest a solution in the interests of all concerned. He must be 
judicially minded. He will not offer a solution that will give 
him personal advantage. He will tell the truth as he sees it. 
He will accept a position of leadership only because he believes 
he can serve those who select him to lead. 

Such men, such motives, such service can come only through 
recognizing the worth of all men, coupled with a determination 
to sink selfish interests in the interests of all of those involved, 
knowing that selfishness, envy, hate, jealousy, tend to destroy 


GROUPS AND RACES 329 


those men who harbor them. They will do the same with fami- 
lies and nations. Racial antagonisms, national antagonisms, 
industrial antagonisms, in the end will rend those who harbor 
them. 

Education in its broadest sense is the source from which solu- 
tions must come. Men must know. They must be taught. 
The process must begin in our schools. There students should 
be taught to search, to investigate, to choose, and how to wrestle 
with problems, individual and social, still awaiting solution. It 
is not enough to teach them how problems of the past have been 
solved. It is the method they need to know. It is the method 
of attack upon a problem, the means whereby a solution may be 
reached. No longer is it either wise or sufficient to teach stu- 
dents what they shall believe or what they shall think, but they 
should be taught the method by which beliefs are arrived at, 
and how they should think, not what, but how. 

The Forum.—This can never be done by presenting argu- 
ments even tho they be based on facts unless opportunity 1s 
given on every occasion for those addressed to raise questions 
and submit additional facts or to question the facts presented 
or to inquire as to their source. The forum is coming to be 
recognized as one of the most effective methods of helping 
people to think and think straight. The stump speaker who 
can harangue an audience for an hour and make all kinds of 
extravagant statements, and slip away immediately at the close 
without giving the audience an opportunity for questions, 
speaks much more carefully, uses less extravagant statements, 
if he knows he must conduct a question box at the end. He 
cannot present conclusions alone then. He must make clear 
how he arrived at them. He must explain his language, tell 
what he means by this, that, or the other inference. He can no 
longer tell the audience what they shall think.’ He must show 

them how he thinks, and why. They will go away and form 


330 PRACTICAL, PSYCHOLOGY 


their own conclusions. If this method were more largely em- 
ployed by ministers, they could be of much more service to their 
people. Most of them never give the congregation an oppor- 
tunity to ask questions, hence often they do not know what 
their people think about religion, the Bible, the church and 
other questions which the minister regards of so much 
importance. 

When men are taught how to investigate facts, how to get 
at the truth, and how to discover the motives of those who 
offer solutions for problems, we shall have gone a long way 
toward finding solutions and making for peace and goodwill 
among all men. When a race knows the truth about itself and 
about all the other races the race problems will be settled. 
When the employers know and face the whole truth about 
themselves and about their employees, and vice versa, the diffi- 
culties of relationships in industry will be solved. 

Turn back to page 306 and read the six fundamental ele- 
ments, putting your family, your church, your lodge, your pro- 
fession, your community, your nation, your race in with your- 
self and then picture the world and its problems to your mind. 
Are there any problems that cannot be solved if those principles 
are applied? If they were applied a new social order like unto 
the Kingdom of Heaven would soon come. They can be ap- 
plied. Will you apply them? Will your social group? 


ra 


QUESTIONS 


CHAPTER I 


The Machine the Mind Uses 


. With what does psychology deal? 


2. Name some facts that indicate the dependence of mind upon the 


body. 


. Name some facts to indicate that the body is a machine, or instru- 


ment, used by the mind. 


. What is meant by localization of function? In what part of the 


brain is the area of sight? Hearing? 


. What do you understand practical psychology to be? 
. What do you hope to gain by studying the subject mentioned in 


Question 5? 

What is a neuron? Name its parts. 

In what part of the brain is psychology especially interested? 
Describe that part. 

Describe the function of nerve fibers. 

What is meant by association centers? 

What is the cell theory of life? 

Define reflex arc, and describe its mechanism. 

Name two results of man’s successful conquest of nature. 

What do you mean by self-control, or self-mastery? 

What is meant by differentiation of function in animals? 

Explain what is meant by “cellular intelligence.” How do we 
know there is life in each cell? 

Distinguish between mind and consciousness. 

What is the basis of all human success? Show why. 

Show why the man has a larger “life” or “livingness” than the dog. 

Explain what you mean by an “enlarging consciousness.” How 
may consciousness be enlarged? 

331 


332 


19. 


20. 


QUESTIONS 


CHAPTER 2 
Sense-Perceptive Processes 


Explain what you mean by sensations being the foundation of 
knowledge. 

Describe any experience you have had in which sensations were 
registered in the nervous system and you were unconscious of 
them at the time but remembered them later. 

What do you understand by perception? 

Show how one’s past experience has an influence on determining 
what a new idea means. 

Explain why it is that one’s knowledge depends upon his environ- 
ment. 

Trace briefly the process of “seeing.” 

Define illusion, and describe one from your own experience. 

What is the cause of illusions? 

Name two uses of illusions in business not mentioned in the 
chapter. 

Explain why it is that one cannot know just what an object or 
percept means to another. 

How can you account for the fact that several persons see the 
same accident and yet describe it so differently? 


. What relation does prejudice have to one’s ideas? Illustrate. 


Show how it is that each one makes his own world. 

Describe the kind of information furnished one by the sense of 
hearing. 

Describe any experience you have had that indicates that the scope 
of any one of the senses may be broadened by use. 

What do we mean when we speak of “a world of waves?” 

Show how an increased knowledge of an object can be secured by 
employing more than one sense in its study. 

Ts it true that every normal person can know more than he knows 
now? Why? 

Describe a process or a game that will develop accuracy in observa- 
tion. Describe an experience of your own where inaccurate 
observation gave you an incorrect idea of an object. 

Name two things that you have determined to do to broaden your 
viewpoint. 


QUESTIONS 333 


CHAPTER 3 
Concepts and Judgments 


Trace the progress of the mind from indefinite sensations to a 
knowledge of external objects. 

Illustrate from your own experience which you recognize more 
readily, likenesses or differences. 

Explain why it is an advantage to use a variety of objects when 
one is learning to count. 

Explain why knowing how in any line does not necessarily mean 
improvement. 

Show that mental growth comes only thru effort. 

Describe the process by which the child comes to distinguish be- 
tween himself and the outside world. 

Distinguish between percept and concept and give an example 
of each. 

Explain why a concept can contain only the essential qualities of 
objects. 

Justify the following statement: “A concept can mean nothing 
apart from the individuals from which it took its rise.” 

Define and illustrate analysis. 

Show why synthesis is necessary in forming accurate concepts. 

Illustrate the process of combining concepts into larger groups. 
Of what advantage is it? 

Name the steps in concept formation. 

Show how the use of language makes for (a) physical economy, 
(b) mental economy. 


. Explain the importance of concepts in mental growth. 


Explain why accurate generalizing is a slow process. 

Discuss the importance of a correct use of words and names. 

Name a concept you have formed since beginning this book and 
define the concept. 

Define and illustrate the mental process called judgment. How 
can one improve his judgment? 

Show why the progress of the race depends upon judging. Name 
an invention or a discovery and show how judgment was related 
to it. 


334 QUESTIONS 


19. 
20. 


CHAPTER 4 
The World of Association 


State a physiological reason for the inequality of men and show 
why. 

Define reaction time. 

Name the elements or steps involved in reaction time. 

State briefly the importance for thot of the association areas of 
the brain. 


. At what age do the great association areas begin to develop? 
. Explain why mental ability and exact size of one’s brain cannot 


be known from the size of the head. 

State two facts to show that the latest acquired associations in 
both the individual and the race are least permanent. 

How do you explain the fact that anything in consciousness tends 
to call up something else? 

State two facts to prove that nothing appears in consciousness 
without a good reason. 

Define association as used in psychology. 


. What causes association? How can one broaden his association? 


Show how association of ideas supplements the present by repro- 
duction from past experience. 

Explain and illustrate with two examples the law of contiguity. 

Show why contiguity is the basis of all association. 

Show why association by similarity requires greater mental de- 
velopment than association by contiguity. 

Discuss briefly the power of association and illustrate by an 
example. 


. How do you associate torrid and arctic, Spain and New Orleans, 


England and Rome? 

Name an instance that you have known about where a wrong 
association has caused abnormal functioning of some organ of 
the body. 

Show that familiarity aids association. 

What does the fact that association requires time indicate in regard 
to the activity of subconscious ? . 


17. 


18. 


19. 


20. 


QUESTIONS 335 


CHAPTER 5 


Memory 


What does the mind do to sensations when it perceives them? 
Illustrate the difference between memory and remembering. 
Discuss the relation between association and memory. 

Discuss the importance of the training of the senses in relation to 
remembering. 

Define retention, reproduction, recognition, and replacement and 
and show why each is essential to complete remembering. 

How is it that we sometimes know we have seen a thing and can- 
not tell where or when? 

Does absolute forgetting ever occur? Give facts to support your 
answer. 

Give reasons for cultivating the logical memory over against the 
mechanical. 

Halleck says, “The first rule for securing a better memory is to 
pay attention to the laws of hygiene, to endeavor by all means 
to keep the health at high water mark.” Justify this statement. 

Show how memory releases us from the present. 

Show that we have memories instead of memory. 

Explain why forgetting is quite as essential to mental growth as 
remembering. 

Is there a physical basis for memory? Give reasons for your 
answer. 

What is meant by a person being eye-minded, ear-minded? How 
does this show itself in memory? 

Show how memory enriches one’s present experience. Give an 
illustration. 

(a) Why are reviews necessary for some things and not for others? 
(b) Why is it better to think over than to read over in re- 
viewing ? 

Name three rules that one should have in mind in committing 
things to memory. 

Have you satisfied yourself that you can remember anything you 
want to? Recite an experience to illustrate this. 

“Memory is impartial. It tends to keep the happy man always 
happy and the miserable man always miserable.” Justify this 
statement. 


336 


6-7. 


10. 


Il. 


72; 
13. 
14. 


QUESTIONS 


CHAPTER 6 


Imagination 


. Mathematicians today understand Newton’s principia with ease 


but those of his own day did not. Explain why this is and the 
part that the constructive imagination plays in it. 
How do you try to cultivate a spirit of openmindedness ? 


. Make a brief study of the mind of some child under five years 


that you know and give (a) of what he has formed images, 
(6) to what extent are his images due to his social surroundings, 
(c) to what extent are they due to the common impulses of 
childhood? 

Here are three words: Typewriter, factory, merchant. Imagine 
a series of situations in which the three words can be used. 
Construct six short sentences in which the three words shall be 
used and each sentence have a meaning different from any of 
the others. 

Think of your present position and everything connected with it. 
State briefly all the ideas for improvements that occur to you. 
Stop at this point and think of what you expect to be ten years 
from now. See the entire picture—position, income, family, 
friends. Now write what seems to be the greatest obstacle in 
the way of attainment, and how you propose to overcome it, 

and when you will begin. 

Do not use paper but imagine you have before you a piece of paper 
4 inches square with an edge parallel to the edge of the desk or 
table nearest you. Imagine you fold the lower right hand corner 
over upon the upper left and crease the diagonal. Then imagine 
the upper right corner folded down upon the lower left, and the 
diagonal creased, and the lower left folded upon the upper left. 
Then with the paper thus folded, imagine the lower right hand 
point cut off parallel with the left edge. Draw a figure the 
shape of the unfolded piece cut off. 

Distinguish between images and percepts (a) as to clearness, 
(6) as to control. 

Discuss the relation of imagination and beliefs. 

What is the cause of prejudice, or bias, and how can it be removed? 

Distinguish between image and idea. 


QUESTIONS 337 


15-16. What part did imagination play in the mind of the writer of the 


vp 
18. 


19. 


20. 


on 


following? 

“Love is blind and marriage is an eye doctor.”—Greenville 
Piedmont. 

“Coal barons’ propaganda explaining high prices should be 
shipped to people using hot air furnaces.’—Brooklyn Eagle. 

“The significant feature of an American banquet is the dry 
toast.” —Hartford Times. 

“America’s plan for limitation of navies calls for constructive 
destruction instead of destructive construction.”—Norfolk 
Virginian Pilot. 

Show the effect of environment upon one’s imagination. 

Discuss the constructive imagination, and name the ways in which 
it deals with its material. 

Show that one’s monetary value depends upon what he can see with 
his mind’s eye. 

How do you account for the change in the testimony of witnesses 
in the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti? 


CHAPTER 7 
Reason or How We Think 


What is the difference between thinking and day dreaming ? 

Suppose you really believe that fire will not burn you; will it make 
any difference in your conduct? What? 

Give in some detail an example of your own thinking? 

How do you account for a belief in “signs”? Do you know of any 
such belief that is the result of reflective thot? Give it. 


. One says, “I know it is bad business, but yet I do it.” How do 


you account for such a situation? 


. On reading a problem one person begins writing at once; another 


sits for a few minutes apparently doing nothing, and then be- 
gins to write. Other things being equal, from which would you 
expect the better result? Why? 
What is the difference between inference and proof? Illustrate. 
A little child opens and closes a book and says, “Door! door !” 
How do you explain it? 


14. 


15. 


QUESTIONS 





Why do labor and capital differ so widely in regard to problems 


of industry? 
Discuss the law of parsimony in relation to a belief in miracles. 


. Wherein does the real danger lie when reasoning from analogy? 


Of what use is the syllogism? Name its terms. 

“Theorizing unless based upon concrete cases is valueless.” Show 
why. 

Explain why all decisions of the United States Supreme Court 
are not unanimous. 

What was the logic of those who burned persons at the stake? 


) 


16-17. “There are no rigid boundaries for thot. The only possibility — 
of advance for the race is in breaking over the supposed — 


18. 


19. 
20. 


I-2. 


boundaries.” Show the truth of the above. 
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Show how necessity leads 
to thinking. 
Explain why thinking is difficult for us all. 
Give an example of the use of reason in acquiring knowledge. 


CHAPTER 8 
Will and Habit 


Explain why it is that we judge men by their actions rather than 
by what they say. Is it always right to so judge them? Why? 

Show why one’s will depends to a large extent upon the neuron 
patterns in the brain. 

What do you understand to be the basis of habit? Explain. 


. Show why habit is a time saver. Why not turn all activities, as 


far as possible, over to habit? 
Can you give an experience of your own to illustrate “second 
mental wind”? 


. Describe an experience of your own in breaking a habit. Give 


details and results. 

Discuss “right. mental attitude” toward any task or problem as a 
factor in its accomplishment. 

Give illustrations of fields in which your reading and study have 
fitted you to see more than would have been possible without. 

Can you name any reform movements of the present which are 
opposed chiefly because men are unwilling to adjust themselves 
to a new order? 


13. 


14. 


rast 


16. 


‘bp 


18, 


19. 


20. 


QUESTIONS 330 


Thinking of habit, what is the effect upon thinking when we sub- 
stitute the word “swiping” for “stealing’’? 

To what extent is one indebted to inheritance, and to what extent 
to his own will, for his personality? 

Why may a novelist not have one of his characters suddenly 
reform? 

Give examples of the fact that one may slip into bad habits gradu- 
ally and thotlessly. 

Give two examples from your observation of half-formed habits 
which were lost because they were not practiced long enough 
to make them automatic. Was the effort put into them wasted? 
Why? 

Explain and justify the statement, “He who would carry the ox 
must every day shoulder the calf.” 

Name a well known person who has succeeded in spite of difficult 
circumstances. Explain why. 

Does one’s confidence in his ability to do help him to do? Why? 


CHAPTER 9 
Interest and Attention 


Show (a) that sensations of which we are conscious depend upon 
attention; (b) that what we remember depends upon attention. 

Account for the use of mind in the following sentence: “I can’t 
put my mind on anything today.” 

Explain why it is that novelty sometimes attracts one’s attention 
and at other times does not. 

Discuss the influence of the will upon attention. 

State and illustrate the conditions of voluntary attention. Recite 
and instance from your own experience. 

Thinking of attention, how can you account for the miser’s love 
of money? 

Discuss the influence of bodily conditions upon the attention and 
illustrate from your own experience. 

Show the truth or falsity of the following: “The end of educa- 
tion is the development of certain prominent interests of the 
mind.” 


340 QUESTIONS 


9-10. Some persons are interested in facts, others in ideas, and still 


it. 
12. 


inet 


14. 


5: 


16. 


171 
18. 


19. 


20. 


others in ideals. Can you see in what way these interests 
give a clue to the life work of individuals of the different 
groups? What general line of activity should each group 
follow ? 

Thinking of your own experience, what is the secret of interest? 

Thinking of Sheridan at the battle of the Shenandoah, discuss 
the effect of enthusiasm on interest and effort. 

Mention three causes of inattention and lack of interest and show 
what can be done to remove them. 

Assume that you are compelled to do a line of work which you 
thoroughly dislike. Taking a philosophical view of the situ- 
ation, give details as to how you will adjust yourself and your 
interests in order that you may profit most in peace of mind 
and mental growth while doing the work. 

Below are given two verses. Read them both and state in which 
you find the strongest involuntary interest aroused and tell why. 


“Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime, 

And, departing, leave behind us 
Foot prints on the sands of time.” 


“Lives of great men all remind us 
That no matter what we’re worth, 

Each succeeding day will find us 
Striving on to get the earth.” 


To what extent do you find that noises or new environment inter- 
fere with your work? What remedy do you apply? 

Is mind wandering ever justifiable? What is its relation to mental 
recreation? What is its relation to attention? 

Do you believe you can carry on a conversation while working 
without its interfering with your work? Explain why. 

Explain the importance of maintaining broad interests. Give three 
suggestions for keeping the interests broad. 

Give from your own‘experience detailed facts to show that interest 
is a test of adaptability. 





QUESTIONS 341 


CHAPTER I0 
Subconsciousness 


1. Explain what you understand by subconsciousness. What is its 
relation to consciousness? 

2-3. Discuss the relation of instinctive to intelligent behavior. Which 
is more powerful? Why? 

4. Explain why modern man has greater freedom than the lower 
animals and than primitive man had. 

5-6. What do you understand by a “complex”? What results when 
a mental element is separated from its attendant neuron group 
pattern? 

7. What do you understand by “mental disease’? Name two. 

8. Distinguish between nervousness and “nerves” as to cause and 
effect. 

g. What seems to you to have been the cause of Ancel Bourne’s loss 
of identity? Explain your answer. 

10. What do you understand to be the difference between organic 
and functional diseases? What does this difference indicate as 
to methods of treatment? 

1-12, Explain what you understand by “suggestion.” Show the place 

it has in one’s political ideas. In one’s religious ideas. 

13. Why are witnesses in court often not allowed to hear each other’s 
testimony? 

14. How do you decide whether an experience is an hallucination or an 
illusion? 

15-16, What do you understand a dream to be? Of what material 
must it necessarily be composed? Do you believe that dreams 
warn one of coming events? Why? 

17. What is the underlying principle of hypnosis? Name two mis- 

conceptions that have been held in regard to hypnosis. 

18. Remembering that one gives suggestions as well as takes them, 
how shall he meet his responsibility for leadership in home, 
society, and occupation? 

19-20. Define—(a) Psychotherapy; (0) Psychoanalysis. Wherein do 
they differ? 


342 QUESTIONS 


CHAPTER II 
Conscious Control 


1-2. When you think of chemical affinity, tropism, gravitation, etc., 
how do you think of them in relation to God? Do you think 
of God manifesting Himself more directly through them than 
He does through you? Explain. 

3-4. If one can develop physically and mentally only through obeying 
the laws of the universe, what should be one’s attitude toward 
acquiring and applying a knowledge of these laws? Is one re- 
sponsible for measuring up to the best he knows or has oppor- 
tunity to know? Why? 

5-6. As you think of instinct; habit, choice, what relation do they seem 
to bear to each other? Does it seem to you that instincts can 
be modified? Explain. 

7. From the viewpoint of psychology why has one not met his full 
responsibility when he has done as well as, or better than, others 
have done? 

8-9. Give an example from your own experience with (a) music, (b) 
literature, (c) companions to show that your estimate of their 
value at any one moment is not to be set down as trustworthy. 
How do you account for this? 

10-11. Give an example from your own experience in which you have 
followed your better judgment instead of your first inclina- 
tion. Analyze the mental process by which you reached your 
decision. Do you think it an example of conscious control ? 

12-13. As you think of your experience during the past year, do you 
find that you are always sure of yourself; that is, do you stand 
by a decision you have made, or do you revise your judgment 
later? Explain why. 

14. How does mood affect the ideas that come into your mind? 
Are these ideas the cause or the effect of the mood? How 
can the ideas produced by any certain mood be excluded from 
consciousness ? 

15-16. What do you regard as the relative importance of inspiration 
and habit in character building? Can you give an example 
from your own experience of something you have been in- 
spired to do that under ordinary circumstances you would 


QUESTIONS 343 


not have done? What does this indicate as to one’s need of 
finding new sources of inspiration? 

17. One should eat and drink in the interest of health and not of 
appetite. Discuss the foregoing statement and show what is 
involved in regard to a need of knowledge of diet. 

18-19. Thinking of the formation of concepts as discussed in Chap- 
ter 3, show how the mind of man is continually led to search 
for a unity in the universe. Indicate some of the steps that 
have been taken in that direction. Is the idea of one God 
consistent with such a search? Why? 

20. What is auto-suggestion? Do you think one may increase his 
ability to accomplish things through auto-suggestion? Can you 
recite an experience of your own to prove it? What bearing 
does this have upon “One can become what he wants to be’? 


CHAPTER I2 
Temperaments 


I. What do you understand by temperament? Can temperament 
be modified? Explain. 

2. Explain why one cannot always judge another’s ability by dis- 
covering what that one has accomplished. 

3. Distinguish as best you can between knowledge and intelligence. 

4. What, in your judgment, is the value of the Army Intelligence 
Tests? Can you think of a case where their results would 
not be dependable? 

5. Show why there is great need of definite information in regard 
to the knowledge and intelligence required in the various pro- 
fessions and industrial activities. 

6. Thinking of number five, write what you regard as five of the 
most essential requirements of a successful physician aside from 
good health. 

7. What conclusion may we draw as to the value of education when 
we study the chart on page 301? 

8-9. How do you account for the increasing emphasis upon “service” 
to others, to the community, etc., that is heard on every side 
today? Does it indicate that the world is getting better? Why? 





344 QUESTIONS 


10. Do you believe one should be judged by the quality of the thots — 
he thinks? Are there fashions in thinking as in dressing? 
Illustrate. 

11. Show why from the standpoint of psychology “Deny thyself” is 
sound teaching. 

12. State three reasons why cooperation must succeed competition. 

13-14. What is the relation of conduct to character? Of ideas to con- 

duct? Of ideals to ideas? 

15. Name two reasons why phrenology and physiognomy are not scien- 
tific in their attempts to analyze character. 

16. Show that vocational guidance properly conceived must do more 
than select employees for particular positions. It must discover 
the thing for which the applicant is best fitted and then discover 
a place where that ability can be used best. What do you under- 
stand by personnel as used in industry today? 

17. Has one a right to pray for something for himself which he must 
secure at the expense of others, such, for example, as influence, 
position, wealth? Why? 

18. Has one a right to work to secure something he will not pray for? 
Why? 


CHAPTER I3 
Groups and Races 


I, What are social problems? Name three prominent ones of the 

present time. 

2. Show why a new idea is always a product of individual conscious- 

ness and not of social consciousness. 

3. Name five things that the individual inherits that are social. 

4-5. Show that social consciousness opposes individual independence. 
Is this a good thing for the individual? Give reason for 
your answer. 

6. Give two reasons to show that man is better acquainted with the 

structure of society than he is with its function. 

7. Explain why it is difficult to solve social or group problems by 

law. Of what use then are laws? 

8. Show why prejudice is an obstacle in way of a solution of any 

social or group problem. 

9. Wherein does the solution of any such problems lie? 


QUESTIONS 345 


10. What seems to you to lie at the foundation of racial antagonisms? 

11. Which of the views given—that in the first quotations, of Judge 
Gary, or of Bishop Fisher—seems to be most openmindedly and 
fairly presented? Why? 

12-13. Do you believe that co-operation is going to supersede compe- 
tition in national and race relations? Give three reasons for 
your answer. 

14. Do you agree with the resolution of the Methodist General Con- 

ference quoted on page 328? Give two reasons for your answer. 

15-16. Show that it is more important to the student to be taught how 
to think than it is to be taught what to think. Illustrate by a 
concrete case. 


Wan Oe 
ie AN * 


Re WO YEA Ou Wile = fs i ie 
ye yy me wii it NS Hisch 


RG 


by ae 
Mi 


BPE NL 
RA Me, 


Hava 


aaa 


vi 17 





INDEX 


Ability, 3, 4, 20 
Action, activity, 6f, 184, 201 
Adaption, adaptibility, 43, 222 
Amoeba, amoeboid processes, 10, 14, 
38 
Amphioxus, 10, 12 
Analysis, analyze, 2, 61, 63, 71 
Antagonisms, 315 
Apes, 85 
Arteries, 219, 270 
Association, associate, 7, 28, 32, 33, 
34, 38, 39, 82 ff 
Centers, 20, 85 ff, 123, 235 
Power of, 95 
Sub-conscious, 97 
Time required for, 104 
Uncontrolled, 104 
Attention, I, 2, 15, 32, 131, 207 ff 
Auditory, 31, 38 
Auto-suggestion, 279 
Axon, 22, 24 


Behavior, 41, 55, 232, 234, 235 
Belief, 142, 171 

Bias, 103, 144, 145 

Body, 30f, 83, 268 

Bodily activity, 1, 6 ff, 213, 257 
Drain 17 i.) 307, .85,..08, (112 ff, 137 


Us tan 10, 10 £922,123, 85, 00, \273 
Cellular intelligence, 13, 14, 55, 235 
Cerebellum, 18 ff 

Cerebrum, 18 ff 

Character, 2, 267, 287 

Child, children, 71, 92, 211, 221, 233 
Clairvoyant, 144 

Color, 45 f, 86, 103, 105, 136 
Commensalism, 324 f 

Community, 3, 300 

Complex, 103, 239 

Conception, concepts, 55 ff, 66f, 172, 


271 
Conditioned reflex, 89 


Consciousness, conscious control, 1, 
27 1,71, 01, 04,07 1,0 142, 200, 
214, 233, 257 ff, 274, 310f 

Contiguity, 91, 130 

COTLexi-20, bale 20,3307 3507 BO, sa 


Dalton, 136 

Darwin, 273 

Dendrite, 22 

Desires, 3, 215, 216 

Dewey, 167 

Diseases, 5, 19, 240, 241, 244 
Dissociation, 102 f, 241 
Dreams, day-dreams, 158, 254 


Education 27055, 97450325 

Emotions, I, 5, 43f, 98, 240, 272 

End-brush, 22 

Environment, 16, 35, 41, 149 

Epiphenominalism, 209 

Experience) 1/6, 132,.1355130, (41;\42; 
57, 64, 71, 88, 90, 103, 104, 108 f, 
163, 238, 263, 265, 272, 314 


Faraday, Michael, 79 
Fatigue, 98, 103, 196 
Pearl 7 ess 
Feeblemindedness, 86, 87, 92 
Feel, feeling, 1, 43, 108, 137 
Field of Knowledge, 203 
Flechsig, 86 
Freud, Freudians, 252 ff 
Froebel, 273 
Function, differentiation of, 9, 15, 
31; 113,' 278 


Ganglion, 21, 25, 26 
Generalization, 68, 169, 271, 272 
Glands, 7, 8, 23, 25, 26, 195 
Groups, 309 ff 


Habit, 24, 163, 183 ff, 249 
Hallucination, 255, 256 


347 


348 


Healing, health, 3, 268 

Heliotropism, 260 

Heredity, hereditary, 231, 238 

Herrick, 85 

Human, humanity, 211, 224, 232 

Hutchison, Dr. Woods, 269 

Huxleviie73 

Hypnosis, hypnotism, 97, 101, 103, 
227, 244 ff, 275, 278, 282 

Hysteria, hysterics, 103, 142, 227, 
240, 250, 252 


Ideas, 5, 8f, 35, 41, 56, 72, 80, 95, 
126, 146, 163, 239, 257, 265, 266 f, 
272 
Illusion, 36 ff, 240 
Imagination, imagery, 125, 133 ff, 
161 
Images, types of, 135, 140, 146f 
Power of, 154 
Limits of, 156 
Industry, 2 ff 
Inhibition, 9, 201, 265 
Instinct, 5, 162, 233 f, 230, 249, 263, 


309 

Intellect, intelligence, 29, 66, 80, 164, 
199, 2341, 203 

Intellectual level, 73, 74 

Interest 132, 1297130, 207, 210 
223, 315 

Interpretation, 44, 113, 140, 164 


James, Wm, 56 

Japan, 316 ff 

Joule, Dr, 272 
Judgment, 55, 75 ff, 172 
Jung, 252 


Kinship, 326 
Knowing, knowledge, 2, 4, 55, 107, 
143, 164, 181, 202, 235, 293 


Language, 71 ff 


Magician, 251 

Mammals, 263 

Man, mankind, 3 ff, 236, 264 
Mayer, Dr, 272 
McCullon, Dr, 269 
Mechanist, 208, 209 
Medulla, 21 

Melancholia, 240, 241 
Memory, 34, 111 ff, 238, 261 


INDEX 


Memory, basis of, 113, 161, 232, 262, 


209 
Types of, 114 
Time required, II9 
False, 120 
Associative, 263 
Children’s, 120 
Systems, I2I 
Dormant, 132 
Dossu0t, 24 nedeeaas 
Mental, mind, 1 ff, 20, 28, 29, 32, 34, 
53 ff, 72, 84, 86, 90, 99, 257, 268, 
274 | ; 
Mesmerism, 245 
Motive, 185, 313 
Motor areas, 233 
Muscle, muscular, 23, 31, 44, 46, 106, 
132, 232 


Natural selection, 273 

Nerves, nervous system, nervous- 
ness, 10 ff, 30 ff, 85, 90, 93, 95; 
o8, 132, (232, 233} 240, 202 

Neurokyme, 22, 24 

Neuron, 22 ff, 31 ff, 41, 71, 80, 113, 
162, 185, 236, 239, 255 

Nordics, 310 ff 


Organism, organs, 15, 16, 41, 231, 
, 2733 ; 
Origin of species, 273 


Perception, percept, 19, 33, 35, 39 
40, 52, 54, 55, 50, 57, 135, 140, 
TA Az ts 

Phototropism, 261 

Phrenologist, 284, 287 

Physiognomy, 287 

Pintner, Rudolph, 288 

Plexus, 25 

Prejudice, 103, 144, 145, 314 

Protoplasm, 10 

Psychic, psychical, psychism, 210, 
233) 2011267274 

Psychoanalysis, 252, 254, 278 

Psychognosis, 254 

Psychotherapy, psychotherapeutics, 
244 ff, 247 ff, 254, 278 

Psychology, psychological, 1, 2, 4, 
5, 6, 16, 72, 81, 280 


Race, 6, 300 ff 
Reaction time, 84 
Real, reality, 35, 218, 219 


INDEX 


Reason, 152, 158 ff, 276 

Reflection, 20, 41, 169, 235 

Reflex, reflex arc, reflexive, 25, 27, 
163, 234, 235 

Remembering, 9, I10, 123, 139 

Repetition, 124, 125, 128 

Reverie, 255 


Schwann, Dr, 273 

Scientist, 3, 4, 6, 30 

Self-control, self-mastery, 6, 256, 
266, 267 

Sense, senses, sensory, 31 ff, 37, 39, 
42, 44, 53, 213 

Sense-percepts, 55, 61, 134 

Sensations, 31 ff, 55, 172, 263 

Service, 302 ff 

Sleep, 98, 197, 236, 246 

Socially minded, 312 

Society, 5, 312 

Species, origin of, 273 

Stern, 211 

Stimulus, 8, 30, 32, 35, 38, 43, 55s 
88, 113, 208, 210, 214, 255 


349 

Sunconscious, 20, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 

104, 106, 107, 131, 144, 163, 
230 ff 274 ff 


Suggestion, 144 

Synapse, 23, 24, 84 

Synthesis, synthetic, 61, 62, 63, 
71 


Temperaments, 284 ff 
Terman, Lewis M, 72, 74 
Tests, 73, 83, 105, 136, 174, 290, 291, 
292, 203 
Army, 204 ff 
Thalamus, 21 
Think, thinking, 1, 6, 9, 15, 160 ff, 
171 
Laws. of, 173 
Arrested, 178 
Titchener, 77 


Vocational guidance, 284 ff 


Wakefulness, 236 
Will, 1, 183 ff, 215 











DATE DUE 


7 


y 


‘i - 


PRINTEDINU.S A. 


GAYLORD 





BF121..F23 
Practical psychology for men and women 


m 


ina 


ry—Speer Librar 


i 


Princeton Theological Se 


1 1012 00008 6043 





